New Order
by Scedasticity
Summary: Aizen wins. But Aizen really, really likes to gloat, so everyone lives. Some of them are happier about this than others. See first chapter for warnings.
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings:** (Non-explicit) rape, (non-graphic) torture.

 **Author's notes:** This is dark, and while there will be comfort and things will get better it's not going to be right away. I don't have characters listed because it's a cast of thousands - basically everybody - which probably also deserves to be a warning. Also, I'm mostly on ao3 (Scedasticity underscore drawerfic for this story) and have been fighting with this posting interface for hours just to get this up, had to do this chapter in pieces, and never did get the last part to format the way I wanted, so future updates here may lag considerably behind future updates there.

* * *

 **Day One (Part One)**

 **Ise Nanao**

There wasn't any record of what the creation of the King's Key would look like, but the bright light in the morning sky over where Karakura Town had been transplanted was a very ominous sign, Nanao thought. She sent word to the others left in command of the Gotei to prepare for the worst. Of course no one knew what "the worst" would actually entail.

Five minutes later, a hell butterfly from Akon of Twelfth confirmed that Karakura had been vaporized, presumably in creation of the Key. Five minutes after that, she was called to the gate, where Matsumoto had just arrived in a… mechanical conveyance… packed with a dozen or so humans — mostly adolescents about Ichigo's age, a few children, a few adults. The shinigami assigned to routine duty in Karakura, whose name Nanao couldn't quite remember, was clinging to the top with a terrified expression.

"This is everyone I could get out before it was too late," Matsumoto said. She tried to get out of the… conveyance… and staggered, coughing blood. "Can we get a senkaimon set up with a reishi converter, get them back to the Living World before everything goes to hell?"

She should be reporting — making Matsumoto report — but… The humans were wild-eyed and in shock, apart from the ones who were unconscious. Soul Society had failed them abominably. "…We can try." But how to get a bunch of unconscious humans through the Precipice World? She couldn't justify sending anyone with them — but maybe— "Jidanbō!" she said.

"Ise-fukutaicho?"

"Come with us, and carry that… vehicle."

"Oh, fuuuuuuuck," moaned one of the humans.

"…Carefully."

On the way to the senkaimon, Matsumoto reported what had happened in the False Karakura Town, or what she knew of it, in fits and starts. She wasn't sure of anyone's death, but there were a lot of people who hadn't looked good.

"I know I shouldn't have gone after Gin," Matsumoto said. "And I didn't get any answers. But at least I got a few people out…"

Jidanbō set the vehicle down gently in front of the senkaimon. "There. Have a safe journey, friends of Ichigo."

"Where's Ichi-nii?" one of the children — the only awake one — demanded. " _Where is he?_ "

"I don't know," Matsumoto said. "But he'd want you to be safe, I know that much."

Nanao calculated the senkaimon destination carefully — _not_ in Karakura, but not too far away; at ground level, and on more or less level ground. Finally she turned to the humans, or specifically to the dark-haired boy who appeared to be controlling the conveyance. "Go straight through as fast as you can."

"And steer clear of any shinigami you don't know, in the future," Matsumoto added. "…Maybe just steer clear of shinigami. We don't know what's going to happen."

"Understood," the spiky-haired girl said grimly. "Thank you for helping us, Matsumoto-san."

The vehicle roared through the gate, which closed behind it.

"Now what?" Matsumoto asked.

Matsumoto needed a healer, but— Hell butterfly. Sasakibe.

"Vice-captains' meeting hall," Nanao said. "Iemura will be there. Jidanbō, you'd better get back to the gate, thank you for your help." The gatekeeper nodded and loped away. She turned to… Kuramadani, maybe? "Get back to your division, wait for orders." He obeyed with alacrity.

Sasakibe didn't so much as note Matsumoto's presence, but grimly relayed the defeat of all the captains and vice-captains in Karakura Town. He didn't say whether anyone was alive, except for Yamamoto, who was gravely injured but had ordered Sasakibe back to Seireitei with orders for the worst case scenario which had now occurred.

"Preserve the divisions," Sasakibe said. "And the divisions must preserve the balance." He bowed his head. "Since it appears the traitor has succeeded in creating the Key, we are authorized to surrender if there is no other option."

Nanao contemplated trying to evacuate the Eighth out into the Rukongai, or even through a senkaimon. She might be able to do it. The division knew to listen to her when there was a real crisis. But it was only a might, and any of the currently leaderless divisions?

"Absolutely not!" bellowed Ōmaeda Marenoshin (called out of retirement because someone reliable _had_ to be in charge of the Onmitsukidō and Punishment Force). "We will not—"

He was interrupted by a deafening CRACK noise. Sentarō made it out onto the balcony first, but stumbled back inside almost immediately.

"Sōkyoku Hill—" he stammered. "A castle—"

Everyone else followed. There was indeed suddenly a castle on the previously-barren plateau. And the sky immediately above the castle was — _wrong_ somehow. And the spiritual pressure radiating from it…

Sasakibe closed his eyes for a moment. "It's started," he said. "To your divisions."

* * *

 **Tier Harribel**

Aizen's new throne room was even more impressive than his old one, and his new spiritual pressure was far more impressive than it was before, even after restoring what had to be dozens of fallen arrancar. Harribel kept reflexively checking her fraccion, and they hadn't even been dead. Lilynette was perched on Starrk's shoulders. Grimmjow was dressing down his quintet for dying on him and suggesting they shape up in the future, but he looked pleased. (He was also pointedly ignoring Luppi, who was trying to pick a fight with him.)

Baraggan was insisting his fraccion beg his forgiveness for the crime of failing him. Of course he was. And they were doing it, too.

Szayelaporro was eating one of his fraccion. Already?

Finally Aizen flared his presence — enough to get everyone's attention without killing the Numeros. "My arrancar," he said. "I have ascended to the throne of the Soul King. Now it is time to look ahead." He smiled benevolently. "From this palace, which exists simultaneously in Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the Royal Realm, I will oversee all the realms." He paused. "The most immediate issue that must be resolved is that of the shinigami. They are necessary for the balance of the realms, but they must be controlled. Tōsen will be directly controlling the Seireitei in my name."

That seemed like a sound choice to Harribel, not that she would ever have questioned Aizen. You needed a shinigami to understand all the… strange things shinigami did.

"What about Hueco Mundo?" Baraggan asked. Was he actually expecting Aizen to return his throne?

"That remains to be seen," Aizen said. "Hueco Mundo does not on its own require as close supervision, so I will oversee it from here myself at least until the issue of Soul Society is resolved. Then I will decide if other measures are called for."

Baraggan grunted, but didn't have anything else to add.

"I trust you will all assist Tōsen in administrating the Seireitei as needed," Aizen said. "I will reward you for this assistance." From somewhere, he produced a small glassy orb which, on closer inspection, was actually a tightly compressed ball of shinigami magic. "I have developed the yoke for the control of particularly dangerous or intransigent shinigami, and this supervisory duty will fall partially on you as I assign it, but I am first offering some of you the opportunity to take several shinigami of your choice as — pets, if you will."

He gestured, and the little balls flew out among the arrancar. Harribel gingerly gathered the five directed at her, but found them easy enough to handle — there was power there, but it was latent. It looked like the Primera, Segunda, Tercera, and Cuatro had received five each (Starrk looked downright depressed about it, Lilynette delighted), the Quinta, Sexta, Septima, and Octava had received four each, Aaroniero, Luppi, and the Privaron Espada two each (no wonder Luppi was in such a bad mood), and Yammy was evidently not considered up to the responsibility of keeping a pet. He didn't seem to have noticed that he'd been left out.

"These are pre-prepared kidō constructs," Aizen said. "Simply place them against the back of the neck of the shinigami to be yoked, and apply your own power to activate the yoke and seal it to yourself. You will be able to command them as you wish. If more yokes or required, Tōsen or I may choose to prepare them on request, however—" He raised a finger. "Tōsen has asked that after this initial takeover, anyone who wishes to yoke an active shinigami must seek authorization from Tōsen." He smiled. "But we can see to some approvals now. Do you have particular requests about the former captains and vice-captains, my Espada? Starrk?"

Starrk sighed. "I don't need a pet, just give me someone who's not too much—"

He broke off as Lilynette stuffed a hand in his mouth. "I want the little boy captain!"

Aizen looked amused. "None of the captains will be available immediately, but I will be sure to reserve… the little boy captain for you. And get someone not too much trouble for you, Starrk."

Baraggan wanted the ones who had killed his fraccion. The fraccion didn't seem quite sure how to respond to that.

"Tōsen has other plans for Hisagi and Komamura, so you can't have them," Aizen said. "And Suì-Fēng will not be available immediately. But you can have Kira and Ayasegawa now, and — would you like Ōmaeda?"

"Might as well," Baraggan said with poor grace. "What about the bald one?"

"Since Madarame has a bankai, he won't be immediately available, either, but I will reserve him and Suì-Fēng for you if you like. Harribel?"

She'd been thinking about this while the first two answered. "The three female half-Hollows, if that is possible."

Aizen looked briefly surprised. "The Visoreds? Yes, that can be arranged."

Ulquiorra just said he would be happy to take custody of any prisoners Aizen wished to assign to him (he was probably just assuming he would keep the human girl, he seemed bizarrely attached to her, for him), and Nnoitra asked if he could have a look around and see what caught his attention. Grimmjow echoed him, but—

"Could I get Kurosaki? I wanna have a rematch with him."

"…Kurosaki is powerless," Aizen said.

Grimmjow shrugged. "He'll probably get over it."

After another pause, Aizen looked amused again. "Very well. I will need him for a while longer, though."

Zommari echoed Ulquiorra, but added that he would be particularly happy to take the very arrogant captain. Szayelaporro said he didn't want pets, just experimental subjects.

"I'm assigning you Kurotsuchi Nemu," Aizen said. "She will be invaluable if you intend to take over the the SRDI. Do _not_ kill her."

Aaroniero said he didn't want a captain or vice-captain — probably just as well. Yammy still hadn't noticed he'd been left out.

"Well then," Aizen said. "I want all the captain-class shinigami gathered here. The remaining vice-captains will be under Tōsen's jurisdiction. Baraggan, Harribel, Ulquiorra, and Rudbornn Chelute, you will accompany me to clear the battlefield in the Living World." That made sense — Rudbornn's Exequias would be useful in searching the ruins of the false town. "I will need some fraccion from you, Baraggan, Harribel, to assist in Seireitei. Nnoitra, Grimmjow, Dordoni, Cirucci, Luppi — you are under Tōsen's command in pacifying Seireitei. Zommari, Szayelaporro, Aaroniero, Gantenbainne — stabilize the situation in Las Noches until I can attend to it personally. Starrk will wait here as prisoners arrive. …And Yammy will be backup."

(There really wasn't much use for Yammy in peacetime. Although, if it were up to her, Harribel would have hesitated to send Aaroniero and Szayelaporro to stabilize anything, and Zommari wasn't much better. But if that was Aizen's choice, then she would trust it.)

And then Aizen was opening — not quite garganta, not quite shinigami doors, but some sort of portal, back into the world of the living. Harribel sent Mila Rose to assist Tōsen, and prepared to go clean up some enemies — and collect some new girls.

* * *

 **Hinamori Momo**

Hinamori woke to blinding pain in her back, her chest. When she tried to scream, she could. It took a moment to remember why that should be a surprise. Shirō-chan had stabbed her.

She'd asked why, but now that her head was clearer she was sure he hadn't meant to. She wasn't sure how she'd gotten out into the middle of the battle anyway…

Maybe Ichimaru had done it? And gotten Shirō-chan to stab her using some kind of — illusion—

She knew Shirō-chan hadn't meant to, that was the important thing, and she had to tell him that. He'd looked so _devastated_ before she passed out. He was always so determined to protect her…

"Hinamori?" That was Shirō-chan's voice. He sounded awful.

She forced her eyes open, and saw him lying next to her in a heap. He looked barely conscious, but started trying to sit up when he saw her moving. "Hinamori, I'm sorry, I—"

"It's all right, I know you didn't mean to — sshhh, don't try to talk—" He had an awful wound down through his shoulder into his chest. If he didn't have a captain's strength he'd probably be dead. She wasn't sure her small repertoire of healing kidō was up to this, and even if her own chest wound was gone she was still drained dry of energy—

"Hinamori — how — you were—"

"I don't know." She looked around. She'd been lying in a pool of blood, and there was an uneven trail of blood and water across the rubble to where Shirō-chan was — he'd dragged himself to her side. She couldn't see anything else past the wreckage. There was no one in the sky. "I don't see any fighting…"

"We lost." He coughed wetly. "Think Kurosaki might've gone after him, but he had a long lead and I think — it feels wrong—"

There was a sudden blast of spiritual pressure, worse than when the Captain-Commander had unsealed his zanpakutō. It flattened both of them before just as suddenly cutting off.

It had felt… 'Wrong' was a good word for it. She tried to ask Shirō-chan if that was what he'd been talking about, but couldn't seem to catch her breath.

A troop of identical… arrancar? probably arrancar, definitely some sort of Hollow by the spiritual pressure, appeared out of the ruins. Shirō-chan clutched the hilt of his sword but failed to raise it. Tobiume was probably still in the shelter that Hinamori had inexplicably left, but she tried to fire a shakkahō. It fizzled.

Without a word, one of the things approached and ground its boot on Shirō-chan's hand to force him to let go of Hyōrinmaru. Bones cracked before he did. Hinamori tried to fire a fushibi. It fizzled.

She hadn't used the incantation for byakurai in decades, but she used it now on the thing about to pick Shirō-chan up. _That_ at least didn't fizzle. But another one of the things just kicked her in the stomach and picked her up.

"Any more magic and we'll break your jaw," the thing said. "And the rest of his fingers."

She didn't use any more magic.

Shirō-chan hissed in pain when they picked him up, without any consideration for his injuries. He kept looking between Hinamori and Hyōrinmaru, and sometimes almost passing out.

They came to an open, heavily scorched area crawling with more of the arrancar-things, and also some more normal arrancar. There was the blond woman, the old man, some… very odd-looking person, a lot of the identical things…

A black-haired, green-eyed arrancar she'd only seen in briefings met the things as they approached. "Visored by Harribel, vice-captains by Baraggan, captains by Aizen-sama, and I will take their zanpakutō."

That… that was Aizen-taichō?

What had he done to himself?

What was he going to do to the captains?

The arrancar-thing dropped her on the ground next to Ōmaeda, Iba, and Kira. None of them looked good, but they were all conscious, and Kira forced what was probably supposed to be a reassuring smile.

"I'm so glad you're all right," he said.

She attempted to smile back, and failed miserably. "I wasn't, but something…" She clutched at the tear in her shihakushou. "Something just fixed it. It didn't feel like healing kidō…"

Iba nodded. "Me too. And I saw Ukitake-taichō on his feet, and some of the Visored, and Ōmaeda says Suì-Fēng-taichō's hand grew back. I guess it was probably…" He looked nervously over at… what the arrancar had called Aizen.

"But _why_?" Ōmaeda blurted. "Why would he save any of our lives?"

If it had been the Aizen-taichō she knew, Hinamori would have suggested that he was being merciful. But this didn't… feel like mercy. And whatever Aizen had done to himself — or maybe Ichimaru had done it! — the end result was something… alien and terrifying. And she couldn't save him, and she couldn't stop him.

Hinamori cried.

* * *

 **Kyōraku Shunsui**

Shunsui hadn't really expected hiding to be effective, but he'd felt obligated to try. When he sensed he was about to be discovered, he dug out his backup sake bottle. It was barely enough for a few swallows, but he managed to smile lazily over the top of it at the… clone arrancar? "Be right with you, just let me finish my drink."

They picked him up and dragged him. No surprise there.

It was a surprise (a pleasant one even) to see Jūshirō sitting up and more-or-less intact in the small group of captains warily eying Aizen. Suì-Fēng was on the ground but seething. Hitsugaya had propped his head up enough to stare fixedly at — ah, Hinamori seemed to have had a miraculous recovery from being run through, too. That was good. Although it could easily turn bad.

The arrancar dumped him on the ground, and Jūshirō greeted him with a wordless handclasp.

"Yama-jii?" Shunsui murmured. He was sure Aizen could hear them if he wanted to.

"No sign of him. Suì-Fēng thinks he sent Sasakibe to Seireitei with orders, but she hasn't seen him since…"

Seireitei. Nanao. "Do you know what orders?"

"No. Sorry."

That reminded him — Lisa should be around somewhere. Not with the vice-captains… Ah. There, with the other Visored. She was alive, at least.

Ikkaku was put with the captains — Aizen must know about the "secret" bankai — and Yumichika with the vice-captains. It took four clone-arrancar to carry Komamura. Hisagi fussed over the other vice-captains a bit. Aizen showed more interest in Urahara than in anyone else, dragging him up by the collar and whispering something no one else could hear.

No Yama-jii. No Retsu. No Rangiku. No Yoruichi.

"Well then," Aizen said pleasantly, still holding Urahara by the neck. "Shall we return to my new palace?" He opened a senkaimon with just a gesture, or — was it a senkaimon? It didn't have as many layers as a normal senkaimon— " _Now_."

The response was not enthusiastic.

"Your behavior now may make the difference in how your divisions are treated."

That got everyone except Suì-Fēng and Ikkaku _trying_ to move. (Shunsui was fairly sure Ikkaku was still unconscious. He was in for a very unpleasant surprise when he woke up.) No one was up to helping Komamura, but he balanced precariously on his own and lurched to the maybe-senkaimon. Shunsui ended up half-leaning on poor Jūshirō, who was supporting Tōshirō on the other side; the three of them followed Komamura, as that was probably safer than going in front of him.

"I don't see Matsumoto," Tōshirō muttered as they approached the maybe-senkaimon. "Did anyone see Matsumoto?"

Shunsui winced. "I think she may have tried to follow Gin."

"… _Shit_."

It was not a normal senkaimon. They stepped from the ruins of the fake Karakura town straight into a… Shunsui had to call it a throne room. The throne was empty — of course it was, its occupant was in the world of the living — but there were some arrancar scattered around the room, and Sasakibe lying unconscious but without visible injury on the floor not far from their exit point. The Primera was standing closest to the throne, his eyes closed. The little green-haired girl, Lilynette, was perched on his shoulders. When she saw them, she grinned and jumped down. " _You_ assholes!"

"Brace yourself, Ukitake," Shunsui murmured.

Lilynette shoved Komamura off balance on her way over, fortunately not quite onto Sasakibe, and then kicked Jūshirō right in the unnaturally-healed injury. "Don't patronize me, you bastard!"

Jūshirō went down, wheezing, and Shunsui and Tōshirō with him. Lilynette grabbed Tōshirō by the hair briefly — "You, I'll see later" — and then moved on to kick Shunsui in the groin and then the _not_ -healed-wound. "And this is for killing me, you fucking stupid weird pink shinigami—"

The Primera lifted Lilynette off him with one hand, using the other to cover a yawn, just as Aizen appeared standing before the throne. (He could have just come through the senkaimon, but no, he teleported.)

"Is there a problem, Starrk?" Aizen asked, sounding mildly amused.

"Sorry, Aizen-sama, Lilynette was a little excited," the Primera said, ignoring the way she was now pummeling him. "She got away from me while I was dozing." He trudged back over to stand near the throne.

"I see." Aizen hurled Urahara across the room to — shit, _on top of_ the three of them, which didn't do any of them any good.

And then a second later an arrancar came through the senkaimon carrying Suì-Fēng and Ikkaku and forcefully _threw_ them down on the top of the pile.

Ow.

As they were all trying to disentangle themselves without aggravating injuries, though, Urahara whispered, "I think Yoruichi and Unohana got away."

That was something. To Suì-Fēng it was clearly a lot more than something.

"Very good," Aizen said. The senkaimon closed. "Although… Findorr, take Madarame to the sekkiseki cells now. I don't think he'd contribute anything productive to the conversation."

The blond arrancar saluted and obeyed, carrying the still-unconscious Ikkaku.

An unpleasant and _confusing_ surprise.

"Now… Starrk, supervise them for a moment."

Something else opened up, sort of but not quite like a senkaimon, and not in the same place as the gate they'd come through, into a place with white walls. Shunsui couldn't steal more than a glance at it, but it reeked of Hollow reiatsu. Hueco Mundo? Aizen didn't walk through, just vanished again.

"What conversation is he planning on?" Jūshirō breathed, once they had themselves more or less sorted out.

"Probably… explaining the new status quo," Shunsui murmured back. And talking about how he'd won and they'd lost and how inevitable it was. Definitely that. "We're still alive, he must have some use for us…" Hopefully a use beyond schadenfreude.

Movement at the Hueco Mundo door caught his attention, and he turned in time to see another unfamiliar Arrancar carry in Byakuya and Renji and drop them down by the rest. They were both conscious, at least. Byakuya was stoic, but Renji didn't mask his look of horrified fury.

"Fuck, they really got everyone," Renji said. " _Fuck._ "

Byakuya looked back at the Hueco Mundo door. "I believe Aizen is delayed dealing with Kenpachi and Kurotsuchi."

That _would_ cause a delay.

Aizen finally reappeared (not, Shunsui noted, accompanied by Kenpachi or Kurotsuchi), and the door closed. "Now that that's taken care of, let us get down to business." He smiled mildly. "I am sure you will be relieved to hear I recognize the important role that shinigami play in maintaining the balance of the realms, and I have no intention of destroying the Gotei 13. Tōsen will take over administration, and he is eager to minimize bloodshed among the divisions."

There was a "but" coming. Shunsui could _smell_ the "but" coming.

"However."

Close enough.

"Obviously, I will not be able to let any of you serve immediately. You are all far too dangerous to trust until you are properly… broken to the yoke."

That was nicely ominous and vague.

"But I will allow you to assist in guaranteeing the loyalty of my new shinigami recruits."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Renji hissed at no one in particular.

Aizen clapped his hands together. "Take them to the sekkiseki cells, and send Orihime-chan around."

* * *

 **Yadōmaru Lisa**

Aizen and the shinigami captains were long gone, and the fraccion of the old fart Espada were herding the last of the shinigami vice-captains into another portal thing. The Visored were still — waiting.

"Why are we still _alive_?" Hiyori hissed.

Shinji's face was set. "Because he wants to gloat. It's not enough for us to know he's won now, we have to keep on knowing he's won."

"For how long?" Kensei demanded, appalled.

All Shinji could do was shrug.

"Oh _fuck_ this," Hiyori said, and before anyone could stop her she was on her feet and starting to run towards the portal. With her critical injury healed, she was now more mobile than any of the rest of them with their remaining, not-quite-so-critical injuries.

Hiyori was brought up short by the woman Espada grabbing the back of her sweatshirt and lifting her clear off the ground. "No," she said firmly. Which was about what any of the rest of them would have done, so that was fine.

What was not fine was pinning Hiyori down, holding her by the hair, and flaring all her reiatsu right. At. Hiyori. Hiyori cried out, tried to get her mask on, then went limp — and the Espada produced a shimmering ball of shaped reiryoku and slammed it onto the back of Hiyori's neck. Then she effortlessly shoved Shinji back when he tried to interfere.

The reiryoku spread out and shaped itself into a complex pattern embossed in the skin of Hiyori's neck and shoulders. It looked painful. Hiyori staggered to her feet, face bloodless. "You bitch, what did you do to me—"

"Kneel and be silent," the Espada ordered — and Hiyori _did_. The pattern on her neck seemed to twist, and her face lost its remaining color.

"Oh, fuck," Love said.

"Not interested in you," one of the Espada's fraccion said with a cruel smile. "Harribel-sama, should we get the other two now, too?"

"That would be prudent," the Espada approved.

Other two what? _Which two_?

The fraccion kicked Rose out of the way and grabbed Lisa's arm and braids. "You, I might be up for," she said, leering. Lisa glared back.

The second fraccion moved in to hold off the feeble rescue attempts as the first fraccion dragged Lisa to the Espada and pushed her down. She had some idea of what was coming, but it still hurt like fire. Not as bad as Hollowfication, though.

When she could hear again, the second fraccion was speaking, voice poisonously sweet. "If you really care about them, you should be thanking Harribel-sama. She takes care of what's hers, and where do you think the rest of you are going?"

"Fuck. You," Kensei rasped.

Lisa pushed herself up to her elbows to see the second fraccion standing on Kensei while the first one retrieved Mashiro. Everyone else had been beaten down again.

"Lisa!" Rose said. "Are you all right?"

She gave him a look which hopefully conveyed 'no, I am not, an Espada just put some sort of magic slave collar on me and it hurts like a bitch, and I think that fraccion was looking up my skirt, but since we are all apparently being kept alive purely to be gloated at forever, you don't need to worry about it right now. Also, if I say anything, they will probably force me to be silent, so I'm saving it in case there's something important.'

Speaking of being forced to be silent, Hiyori was now quite red in the face, and was also scratching furiously at the collar-thing. By the time Mashiro had been bound (and immediately passed out again), Hiyori had drawn blood and broken several of the lines. If that actually broke the compulsion—

"Stop that," the Espada ordered. "Do not injure yourself." She hooked her fingers — through? — the pattern at the back of Hiyori's neck, next to the big '3', then did the same to Lisa. "These are Apacci and Sung-Sun. You will obey their orders, and Mila Rose's, as if they were mine. Do you understand?"

Lisa heard herself say "Hai", though she hadn't intended to say anything. Hiyori was probably about to explode.

"Apacci, take them to my tower in the castle. Sung-Sun and I will take the rest of the Visored to the cells."

Oh, great.

'Sung-Sun' waved a warning finger at 'Apacci'. "Don't have any fun — don't lay a _finger_ on them without us!"

Great?


	2. Day One: Part Two

**See warnings in first chapter.**

* * *

 **Day One: Part Two**

 **Ise Nanao**

Tōsen's voice over the tenteikūra promised safety for any division which surrendered its highest (remaining) officer. Nanao had her doubts, but she knew even the non-Espada arrancar who'd emerged from the castle would be too much for any unseated officer and more than a few of the seated ones. And after she walked out, weaponless — she had no zanpakutō to surrender — and didn't fight the arrancar clapping on the restraints, Tōsen did appear out of… was that a sonido? Tōsen swooped in from somewhere and put a kidō seal on the division gates.

"The arrancar will keep their distance," he informed her. "Thank you for minimizing bloodshed."

Fortunately he didn't seem to expect a reply to that, because she couldn't come up with one.

They took her right back to the vice-captains' meeting hall and deposited her in the supervision of a pair of arrancar who were mostly focused on glowering at each other. Iemura was already there, as were the Third Seats from First, Third, Fifth, and Seventh. Going in order then? She wasn't surprised Second hadn't surrendered, but Sixth was odd. She guessed Sasakibe had been taken elsewhere?

The Third Seat of Ninth was delivered, then the Third Seat of Tenth as well as Matsumoto, who had to be half-carried — all the running around wasn't doing her any good. The female arrancar stomping over and kicking her in the stomach didn't do her any good, either.

"If we weren't supposed to keep you alive…" the arrancar said menacingly.

Matsumoto opened her mouth to retort, but ended up coughing blood instead. At least it didn't make the arrancar kick her again.

There was a long pause before the arrival of Akon, then Sentarō _and_ Kiyone.

"Don't tell me you got into a fight over who should surrender!" Iemura hissed at them.

"No!" Kiyone snapped back. "We both went out and very calmly asked which of us they wanted, and they took both of us!"

The arrancar didn't react to the talking, so Nanao ventured, "Status on Second, Sixth, and Eleventh?"

Akon made a disgusted noise. "A bunch of arrancar are attacking Eleventh. And vice versa. Although I think their Fourth Seat _tried_ to surrender." He frowned. "Sixth… got slightly different demands. They were supposed to surrender all Kuchiki clan members."

"Oh." That would explain the reluctance. Wait— "How do you know that?"

"Uh—"

Before Akon could admit or deny that Twelfth was spying on Sixth, more prisoners arrived — Iba, Hisagi, and Hinamori. All of them looked battleworn, but Hinamori's uniform was soaked in blood all down the front.

"Hinamori!" Nanao gasped, among others.

"I'm all right," Hinamori said faintly. "It's… it's all healed."

"It is healed, but she probably lost a lot of blood," Hisagi said. He looked quickly around the room. "They… he… he came back, and just… fixed everything life-threatening. Just… waved his hand and fixed it."

No need to ask who 'he' was. "The captains?" Nanao asked, because someone had to.

"Them, too, I think — I saw all of them except the Head Captain and Unohana. But they were taking them somewhere else — Madarame too for some reason—"

"Bankai," Iba said. "Madarame has bankai."

"…That'd explain it I guess."

"And Vice-Captain Sasakibe," Nanao said. "So that's why he's not here." For the benefit of the newcomers, she added, "He came back here, after the defeat in the Living World — ordered us to preserve the divisions and preserve the balance."

Hisagi nodded acknowledgement before continuing. "I don't know about Kira, Ayasegawa, and Ōmaeda, some arrancar pulled them out of line—"

The male guard arrancar hit him. " _His Majesty King Baraggan_."

Hisagi just gave the arrancar a harassed look. The female guard arrancar laughed.

The same arrancar who dropped off the vice-captains from the battlefield took Matsumoto away. Nanao hoped it was just for more thorough medical treatment, but she wasn't optimistic. They must have had a reason for bringing the Third Seat from Tenth to this… whatever it was.

There was an explosion somewhere outside. Everyone winced.

A while later they started smelling smoke.

A while after that, Kira, Ayasegawa, and Ōmaeda (Marechiyo) stumbled in, shirtless and un-cuffed, and— Each of them had some sort of… kidō construct around his neck and shoulders. It looked half like a tattoo and half like inlaid metal, and Nanao had an awful feeling about it immediately.

"Kneel!" barked the arrancar that had escorted them in, and they all dropped immediately. To Nanao's horror, she detected a pulse of power from the constructs at the command, and a drop of blood trickled down from Kira's.

"Oh, do they have to obey us, too?" asked the male guard arrancar, perking up.

"His Majesty ordered them to," the escort arrancar replied. "But you'll need to get tuned to the yoke. Watch this." He shoved Ayasegawa's head down, revealing a gothic numeral 2 in the center of the design at the back of his neck. Then the arrancar (she really was going to need to learn their names) seemed to stick his fingers… _under_ the design, pulling back with a tangle of inky lines leading back to the… yoke. "This is for if they're being stubborn. Pull those ridiculous feathers off, they're unbecoming of even a slave of the king!"

Ayasegawa obeyed, his expression stony. The skin around the yoke reddened further.

"Not that one — the blond one!" the guard arrancar said. "See what he thinks of _despair_ now."

With all the other officers watching in mute horror, Kira was forced to lick the arrancar's boots, punch himself in the face, and break two of his own fingers. Hinamori started crying, but resisted all efforts to make her look away. Worse yet, the male guard arrancar then started to undo his trousers, but stopped when he realized the female guard was smirking at him.

"Oh, go ahead, Redder," she said. "Cyan would love to have the information to add to her dossiers."

"In your dreams, Mila Rose." He made a lewd gesture. "You bitches need a good—"

The guard arrancar — Redder? — was interrupted by the arrival of another arrancar escorting Isane, who was frazzled and cuffed but didn't look injured. Kiyone grabbed her into a hug immediately.

The new arrancar gave Redder and his friend a long look. "Tōsen-sama said the officers are supposed to be intact. And that probably means no fighting other arrancar in here, either."

"Fuck off, Gantenbainne, you're not an Espada anymore." But the escort arrancar did let go of Kira's yoke and shove him towards the others. Hisagi caught him before he could fall, and Iemura hurried over to look at the fingers.

Nanao considered trying to question the new arrancar, who seemed slightly more civilized, but he left almost at once.

"Vice-captain Kurotsuchi?" Akon asked, but Isane shrugged helplessly.

"I haven't seen her since before they caught me in Hueco Mundo…"

Drat. "Did you see anything on the way in?" Nanao asked.

"Fires," Isane said immediately. "Lots of fires. I think the biggest one is where Central 46 — was…" She swallowed convulsively. "There's… a really big fire, there." After a pause, she continued, "But Gantenbainne-san took me to the Fourth to check in before he brought me here, and it was fine."

"I wonder—" Hisagi started, and then all of them were sent to their knees by the strongest spiritual pressure Nanao had ever felt.

Those who'd come from the battlefield looked sickly unsurprised.

It was small consolation that the arrancar looked a little overwhelmed, too.

The Gantenbainne-arrancar stepped back into the room. "It's time. Bring them."

It wasn't a long walk from the vice-captains' meeting room to the Head Captain's office, but under the sickening weight of Aizen's spiritual pressure, it felt like miles. "Them" had turned out not to include Third Seats made redundant by their vice-captains' return, so it was just First, Tenth, Akon, and Sentarō and Kiyone, none of them looking very well under the pressure. Nanao tried to stick close to Hinamori, who was in turn dogging Kira's heels. Once there, no one needed any prompting to kneel. It would have been hard not to, as the spiritual pressure spiked and Aizen… appeared.

He looked rather odd, was Nanao's first thought when she could think again. Everyone below vice-captain had passed out, except Ayasegawa for some reason. And Tōsen was present, wearing half white, half black.

Aizen scanned the group, eyes pausing on Hinamori, who flinched, then turned to Tōsen. "No one from Sixth?"

"They refused to surrender the Kuchiki," Tōsen said. "The Espada have secured the division barracks with limited shinigami casualties. Second is still resisting, but Baraggan has gone to assist; it should be resolved shortly."

Aizen nodded. "Very well." He turned back to his prisoners. "I have ascended to the throne of the Soul King, and expect you all to serve accordingly. As I will be very busy, and my state may be overwhelming for the weak, I will be spending most of my time in my palace; I have delegated the Seireitei to Tōsen." He looked from officer to officer, and smiled. "The Espada are… eager to provide any necessary enforcement. I encourage you not to make it necessary."

Nanao wanted to ask about the captains, and the other people with bankai, and Matsumoto — why take Matsumoto? But she knew it was a bad idea, and even if it wasn't, she didn't think she could force herself to speak.

And then Aizen disappeared, and the pressure let up. Tōsen and the arrancar were still there.

"Rouse the third seats and join me," Tōsen said. He walked to the overlook and stood as if gazing out over the Seireitei. "You may remove the restraints."

Nanao wasn't sure who that was directed at, but it was Kira and Ayasegawa who struggled to their feet (Ayasegawa managed to mostly look like he wasn't struggling) and went around to take everyone's cuffs off. With Isane freed, it didn't take long to get everyone conscious and moving. (She obviously wanted to check over everyone who'd been in battle, but glanced at Tōsen and thought better of it.) As a group, they shuffled to the overlook.

A huge column of smoke was still rising from the site of Central 46, and smaller ones all over the Seireitei, though at least it didn't look like most of the divisions were burning. Nanao couldn't see Eighth from this perspective, but Seventh and Tenth looked intact. Something was going on in Eleventh, no surprise there, but you couldn't really tell what. There was active fighting going on around Second. If you looked carefully you could see the flashes of light from hadō (and probably cero). Sixth wasn't as agitated as Second, but there was more smoke in that area than its neighbors and some of it might be from the division itself.

"What's happening at Second?" Ōmaeda asked, surprisingly quietly.

"The head of the Ōmaeda Clan refused to surrender the division," Tōsen said. "I am forced to employ the arrancar to pacify the district. The arrogance of clans knows no bounds."

That was hard to disagree with in general, but in this case Nanao suspected it had more to do with buying time to destroy documents and let the Stealth Force go to ground.

"The clans are the cancer corrupting Soul Society," Tōsen went on. (Isane looked like she wished she could take issue with his metaphors.) "I will burn them out."

 _Shit_.

There were several moments of shocked silence (apart from the Redder and Mila Rose arrancar guards insulting each other's hypothesized sexual performance in the background).

"W-what do you mean by clans?" Kiyone stammered. A good question.

(Akon had no family. Hisagi, Hinamori, Ayasegawa — Rukongai, and Kotsubaki was one generation removed from the Rukongai. The Kotetsu and Iba families were Gotei families — in the Seireitei for generations but always as shinigami. Kira and Nanao had clans, could be considered nobility — did Kira have any family left? Nanao had cousins she barely spoke to…)

(Ōmaeda had both a clan and a _family_.)

"What do you mean… burn them out?" Hisagi ventured, after Tōsen didn't respond to Kiyone's question.

Also a good question. The answer was at least partially literal — now that she knew what she was looking for, Nanao could match several of the sources of smoke to clan compounds. That was what was going on near Sixth…

"What do you mean, _burn them out_?" Ōmaeda demanded. "What are you—"

"Be silent," Tōsen said. The yoke on Ōmaeda seemed to twist, and the vice-captain choked to a halt. "They will be brought to account for what they have done to Soul Society," Tōsen said, as if no one else had spoken. "Their retainers can either swear their faith to Aizen-sama or leave the Seireitei."

…Some of the noble families had private armies and retainers with zanpakutō, so that would be quite a boost to Aizen. Then again, some of the private armies and retainers with zanpakutō would probably go down fighting against the arrancar rather than go over.

"Tai—" Hisagi broke off. "Tōsen-sama. You do— May I suggest that a large number of… _any_ number of noble retainers being exiled into the Rukongai will do the most harm to the helpless citizens of the Rukongai."

"Then should they be killed?" Tōsen asked. Was he actually listening?

"There must be another solution!" Hisagi said.

"Will you assist me as my lieutenant in finding these solutions?" Tōsen asked.

Hisagi stared at him. "What — no! I'm not going to—"

Tōsen spoke over him. "The current Eleventh will also be dissolved, and its… denizens expelled from Seiteitei unless they swear allegiance to Aizen-sama. Those that survive."

Ayasegawa's expression was unreadable.

"I intend for the rest of the Divisions to continue to operate with you as acting leadership for now, while we consider future reorganization and consolidation," Tōsen said tonelessly. "You will not interfere with any division members who wish to report to Aizen-sama's castle to pledge their faith. Shikai-capable zanpakutō will only be permitted to those who have sworn faith and those rendered trustworthy by the yoke."

Hisagi seemed to have decided on another approach. "Can I ask about the Division shinigami who are from noble families? Most of them are good officers…"

"They may continue to serve in the Divisions, though Divisions must not be dominated by them," Tōsen said. "Some of them I trust to be loyal to their post… others may require the yoke."

"Yes, well… couldn't other nobles also serve in the Divisions?" Hisagi asked. "I don't mean Central 46 — even if they were still alive — or clan heads, just… randomly selected nobles, couldn't they join Divisions? A lot of nobles have strong spirit power, they could be an asset?"

Tōsen contemplated this. Presumably. For quite some time. Something exploded below in Second's district, and in the distance the Kuchiki compound was burning. Isane finally sidled around to check on all the battle-injured. Sentarō and Kiyone exchanged a series of grimaces and gestures, and then finally grim smiles. Redder and his friend speculated about what they might be missing stuck on guard duty, Mila Rose scratched under her bodice, and Gantenbainne stared out at the Seireitei.

"I suppose they might," Tōsen said finally. "With proper training." He turned away from the Seireitei. "Hisagi. If I am to undertake this, I need you as my lieutenant. I will accept you as loyal without your formal pledge to Aizen-sama, but join me now to minimize bloodshed and bring about justice."

(Redder pulled out a hip flask, and he and his friend each took two shots.)

"I—" Hisagi looked at the other vice-captains frantically.

Nanao met his gaze evenly. She wasn't going to tell Hisagi to do this — but she definitely wasn't going to tell him not to. If there was even a possibility of exerting some _sane_ influence over whatever Tōsen's agenda was…

Ōmaeda mouthed _please_.

"…All right," Hisagi said.

"Y—" Kiyone didn't even get a full syllable out before Isane had clapped a hand over her mouth. Iba got Sentarō.

"I will also offer this opportunity to you, Hinamori-san," Tōsen said. "Will you help bring about justice?"

Hinamori was pale, but she raised her chin. "I want to help with the children."

 _This_ , Nanao wasn't sure was such a good idea. Hinamori was… fragile. (But when she thought of her youngest cousins she couldn't say she was certain it was a _bad_ idea either.)

Tōsen left with his two "loyal" vice-captains (and the Gantenbainne arrancar) in tow. Hopefully someone would remember Hinamori really needed a change of clothes.

Once they were safely gone, Sentarō and Kiyone were released, and immediately threw a small joint tantrum about traitors. Isane started trying to calm them down, then burst into tears instead. It did derail the tantrum.

"I heard some of what Tōsen said to my captain during the battle," Iba said. "He talked about wanting to destroy Seireitei for killing his friend… Has he just… transferred it all to nobles, do you think?"

"I assume that's a rhetorical question," Nanao replied, rubbing at her temples. Would they be sending the demands about surrendering shikai-capable zanpakutō around already? Would they simultaneously be asking people to swear allegiance to Aizen? What was involved in swearing allegiance to Aizen? Tōsen seemed to feel that letting Hisagi and Hinamori skip it was a significant thing. "Though it's a good thing for Hinamori if he did choose them based on being from the Rukongai and not being former vice-captains to… well."

Well.

* * *

 **Hinamori Momo**

The place where she'd been run through was still throbbing, even though Isane had checked it and found no remaining damage. This method of healing was effective, certainly, but it seemed to have some serious side effects. (Or else it was _meant_ to keep hurting—) She was so tired.

Hisagi had all his attention fixed on Tōsen, probably trying to plan ahead how to argue against whatever horrible thing Tōsen came up with next, so it was Gantenbainne who noticed Hinamori stumble and caught her arm to keep her from falling. She flinched away, lost her balance, and he had to catch BOTH her arms to keep her from landing in the street.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "Thank you."

He just nodded, and set her back on her feet.

They were heading towards Sixth, Hinamori guessed. She tried to brace herself.

It was both better and worse than she was expecting. The front gates of the division had been blown open, as had the front wall of the captain's office and several other buildings. What looked like most of the division was kneeling in the practice yard in varying states of injury, guarded by a dozen arrancar. A Fourth Division team was on hand and healing people. Inside the captain's office, visible through the gaping hole in the wall, was a neat stack of bodies. The Tercera Espada was overseeing it all.

"Harribel," Tōsen said. "Where are Nnoitra and Grimmjow?"

"Since the fighting here had concluded by the time I arrived, I gave them permission to go to Eleventh," she said.

Tōsen apparently found this an adequate explanation. "I want the surviving seated officers gathered. Shūhei."

"Of course, Tōsen-sama," Hisagi said, before adding carefully, "Hinamori would really benefit from a chance to clean up."

"They both do not present the appearance of people in authority, if that is what they're meant to be," the Tercera said.

"Ah," Tōsen said. There was a long pause. "Use the vice-captain's quarters to clean up. One of the Fourth Division members will provide energy restoration and any necessary healing. One of the Numeros will return to the castle and collect the proper uniforms."

"Hai," everyone said.

Hinamori trudged unhappily into Renji's quarters, praying he was still alive somewhere. A Fourth Division officer followed her as she started to remove her shihakushō, stiff with dried blood.

"Where are you hurt?" the officer asked, eying her clothing with alarm.

Hinamori smiled wanly. "I'm not. Isane checked me already and dealt with anything important."

The officer's head snapped up. "Kotetsu-fukutaicho? Is she all right?"

Oh! "Yes," Hinamori said quickly. "She's fine. I think all the vice-captains except those with bankai… and Matsumoto… are supposed to be back on duty tomorrow." Not all of them would be _fine_ , but Isane at least should be.

"What about Unohana-taichō?"

"I… don't know about her, I'm sorry. But she's probably alive."

She couldn't bear to say how terrified she was of what might be happening to the captains.

The energy pill helped, a lot, and so did the shower. She didn't linger, but even so when she got out there was a fresh uniform waiting for her. It looked like shihakushō, except with a white kosode. It… almost fit? Close enough. She twisted her hair into a tight braid and borrowed one of Renji's hairties. For some reason she felt like she couldn't stand to have her hair down or in her usual bun.

Then she had to face the world outside.

Hisagi met her just outside the door. He looked like he'd had an energy pill, at least. "I don't know if he wants you doing anything with Sixth, but all the branch Kuchiki and Kuchiki-beholden seated officers got slaughtered. They've got no one above seventh seat. Fortunately the last vice-captain retired to run a sunglasses shop, and Tōsen-sama seems to think he's acceptable, so someone's been sent to get him."

"Will he agree?" Hinamori wondered. Would he have a choice?

"His daughter's here, I'd be shocked if he didn't." He scrubbed his hands down his face. "I need to clean up — be careful."

"You too."

Tōsen was speaking to the Tercera as Hinamori approached. "All the Espada and Privaron Espada may take dwellings for themselves in the Seireitei. Just leave the divisions themselves undisturbed."

"Understood," the Tercera said. "Oh — the pets I took are not active shinigami, but should be capable of the work. How would you like me to deploy them?"

"The female Visored?" Tōsen said. "They were vice-captains, but only Yadoumaru is at all suited for administrative leadership… View them as unattached shinigami for the moment. They may be attached to a division in the future." He noticed Hinamori. "Hinamori. Gantenbainne will escort you to secure the salvageable youth from noble houses."

"…Hai, Tōsen-sama."

This was going to be ugly, but _she would do it_.

* * *

 **Shawlong Koufang**

Shawlong had never been very impressed with Nnoitra — more like aspect of 'despair he'd ever stop being so insufferable' — and he'd only become less so when he learned of Nnoitra's cowardly attack on Grimmjow while the fraccion were… absent. Accordingly he hated everything associated with Nnoitra, including his inexplicably devoted fraccion Tesra.

But, while their masters were enthusiastically competing to see who could kill more of Eleventh Division, _someone_ had to see to it that Tōsen's orders were actually carried out. It wasn't going to be Antenor — the slimy bastard had _immediately_ wandered off somewhere giggling maliciously to himself, Shawlong hadn't seen him in hours. It wasn't going to be Dordoni, who was also busy going after Eleventh Division members but hopelessly behind in any numerical competition because of his insistence on endlessly talking at them. It wasn't going to be Cirucci, because everyone thought she was a shrill, annoying bitch. (At least she was on-task.) That meant there wasn't any definite leader, and that meant Shawlong had to talk to Tesra to get things organized.

"New orders!" Shawlong said, looking up from the message a Numeros had given him (for lack of anyone superior being reachable). "Noble retainers are to be _encouraged_ to go swear allegiance to Aizen-sama, and if they fight we kill them, but if they just surrender we leave them where they are for the moment. We can do whatever we want with _adult_ nobles, but _juvenile_ nobles we turn over to the shinigami for… retraining." He guessed.

"How do you tell an adult noble from a juvenile noble?" Edrad asked.

"How do you tell a noble from a retainer?" Nakeem asked.

"We can still take their stuff if we want, right?" Di Roy asked.

"Who put you in charge?" Cirucci asked.

Shawlong passed her the orders with comment. "Does anyone have much experience with nobles, or juveniles?" he asked the assembled arrancar.

"Nobles from retainers isn't a problem," Cirucci said. She scanned the orders and tossed them over her shoulder (Tesra grabbed them). "We order them to give up the nobles. If they will, then those are the nobles, if they won't, then it means they refused to surrender, and we can kill them all."

"Except the juveniles," Shawlong said.

"Right, whatever."

"What if some of the retainers pretend to be nobles when we ask them to give up the nobles, to let the nobles sneak out as retainers?" Tesra asked.

"Maybe _you're_ stupid enough to do that—" Yylfordt started, but—

"He has a point," Shawlong admitted. "Maybe we prevent any of the retainers from leaving Seireitei unless the nobles they surrender are _proven_ to be nobles."

"And we're back to needing an expert on nobles."

"And juveniles."

"This is fucking stupid," Cirucci said. She turned away, released, and sprang into the air.

"Is she going off to slaughter them regardless?" Tesra asked.

But Cirucci was back almost immediately, carrying a flailing shinigami whom she dropped at Shawlong's feet before resealing. "He was hiding in the bushes near Eleventh Division," she said, sounding pleased with herself. "I'm sure he can help identify nobles versus retainers and juveniles versus adults."

"I — what — I don't know—"

"Unless he wants to die."

"Of course I can help."

Technically speaking they were supposed to offer Eleventh Division shinigami a chance to swear allegiance to Aizen before killing him, and if he wasn't Eleventh Division they should return him to whatever division he belonged at, but Shawlong wasn't going to split hairs at this point. "Perhaps we can suborn some retainers to provide information on other noble houses with the promise of mercy."

"You always make everything more complicated than it needs—"

"Then we wouldn't have to all operate together."

"…Point. You, shinigami, where's the nearest noble house?"

"Uh…" said the shinigami. "Uh…"

"If you're not going to be useful…" Cirucci threatened.

"I was just trying to remember the name!" the shinigami yelped. "There's one right over that way!"

Even with no one stronger than Cirucci on hand, the noble compound's guards went down like wet paper. Shawlong remembered to shout "Surrender or be killed!" regularly, but none of the guards made any move to surrender. Some of the servants screamed and ran instead of fighting — Shawlong had Edrad and Nakeem run a perimeter to make sure no one got away before they'd identified the nobles. Their shinigami prisoner got grayer and grayer as they slaughtered their way into the heart of the compound, where the nobles presumably were.

They finally located a group of well-dressed people refusing to make any expression, even as the last of the guards were killed in front of them. An unarmed servant hurled himself at Tesra and was thrown through a wall.

Shawlong looked at the shinigami. "Are these real nobles?"

"I… think so…?"

"Are any of them juveniles?"

"I… can't tell…?" He paused. "No, I think they're definitely real nobles or they'd have said something by now."

Cirucci sighed extravagantly. "Are there any which _might_ be juveniles?"

The shinigami raised a shaking hand to point at a girl. She did look young, maybe, but she seemed dressed the same as the others.

"Great, let's make this easy." Cirucci produced a shimmering sphere of energy from somewhere and grabbed the girl's arm, pulling her away from the others. The noble's impassive expression cracked a bit, showing fear, and then dissolved entirely in screams when Cirucci slammed the yoke onto her neck.

"Aren't we supposed to _not_ yoke the juveniles?" Tesra asked as the girl spasmed and cried on the floor and the rest of the nobles looked on expressionlessly. "Is it supposed to bleed like that?"

"I don't know, and we aren't _sure_ she's a juvenile," Cirucci said. "She might be an adult. This way she can provide necessary information, we can kill the others, and if she turns out to be a juvenile I'll release her to the shinigami later."

"Oh good," Yylfordt said, and tore into the remaining nobles.

* * *

 **Coyote Starrk**

Starrk was just considering asking Lilynette how many times she was planning on kicking the white-haired captain — or maybe distracting her and advising the man to act something other than mildly uncomfortable in the hopes it would get her to stop — when a tiny hole opened up in space next to his ear, and Aizen's voice came out of it. "Starrk, please collect Orihime-chan from Cell 8, take her to Cell 18, and advise Luppi to handle the prisoners a little more delicately."

"Yes, Aizen-sama," Starrk said, because what else was he going to say.

"The fuck was that?" Lilynette said. Apart from that.

"A new message system?" Starrk said with a sigh. "It sounded urgent. Try to stay out of trouble, Lilynette."

He hesitated to leave her alone with a shinigami, but this one hadn't hurt her even when there was a chance of it helping the shinigami win the fight; Starrk didn't think he'd try for revenge on her now. Plus she'd be pissed if she knew he was concerned for her safety. Plus Luppi was in the category of arrancar who were… _erratic_ enough Starrk preferred not to expose Lilynette to them. (He hadn't been around long the first time, but he'd still managed two disturbing incidents with Numeros.)

He'd been in Cell 4 — 5, 6, 7, 8, and there was the human girl healing an unfamiliar shinigami captain, while Zommari loomed over them, staring fixedly ahead making everyone uncomfortable. Ah. Zommari must not have been up handling to whatever was happening in Hueco Mundo, Ulquiorra had been sent to get things under control, and Zommari got the theoretically easy job of herding the healer around. It at least explained why Starrk had been dragged into this.

"Orders from Aizen-sama, she's needed elsewhere," Starrk said to Zommari, hauling up the girl by the arm.

"But Byakuya-san is still—" the girl protested, reaching back to the… healing shield.

"Needed elsewhere with a more critical injury," Starrk said to her. It was a guess, but it at least got the girl to cooperate. He picked her up. He'd been slow enough already. (Zommari, oddly, stayed to stare at the shinigami captain some more.)

This time, instead of checking the numbers, he just zeroed in on Luppi. It wasn't hard: Luppi was in full resurreccion, which took up more of the cell than was really convenient and spilled out into the hall. When Starrk peered past the mass of tentacles, he saw Luppi was holding up the prisoner with four tentacles and slapping him in the face with a fifth. "Come on Captain, don't play dead, I'm not done with you yet—"

Starrk sighed. "Drop him, Luppi."

Luppi pouted at him. "I don't take orders from you, Starrk."

He could say he was here on Aizen's orders. He could point out the low chance of his interfering for any reason other than Aizen's orders. He could point out that since he was the Primera and Luppi wasn't actually an Espada, he certainly should take orders from Starrk. But all that seemed like a lot of work, so he just pulled out a gun and pointed it at Luppi.

Luppi dropped the prisoner to lie in a heap of blood and shredded clothing.

Starrk dropped the girl (on her feet) and jerked a thumb over his shoulder with his freed hand, not lowering the gun. "Seal your sword and get out of the way. If Aizen wanted you to kill the prisoner he'd have said so."

Luppi pouted but obeyed.

The girl rushed past them into the cell, and gave a horrified cry, falling to her knees in the blood. "Sōten Kisshun, I reject!"

"Luppi…" Why did Starrk have to do this? Interfere, fine, but explain? He'd hardly spoken to Antenor before. "They're supposed to be kept alive."

"And he's alive!" Luppi said, sounding offended.

Starrk sighed and looked over at the healing in progress. All the dislocations would have been painful, maybe crippling without healing, but probably not dangerous enough for Aizen to step in. "What was closest to killing him?"

"Uh," the girl said, and one of the… fairy things… chittered at her. "He almost choked earlier, and with the earlier injury to his shoulder his arm could have been torn off if it had been pulled on much harder, but right now it's the, the internal bleeding. From the— the—" She lost the remaining color in her face. " _No_ —"

"Really?" Starrk asked incredulously. Luppi pouted. "Stop making that face, it's tiresome." He looked back at the girl. "Can you heal him?"

"Y-yes," she said. "I've — I've fixed the, the internal damage, I need a little longer for the s-sword injuries, and—"

"Do that, I'll take you back to Zommari after," Starrk said. He felt this was fairly obviously Luppi's cue to leave, and yet Luppi was still there.

The prisoner groaned and stirred, trying to sit up. The girl caught him before he could fall back to the stone. "Careful!"

"Inoue…?" He looked around dazedly. When he saw Luppi, he glared rather than flinched.

Luppi glared back, started back into the cell, and ran into Starrk's gun. " _No_ , Luppi. You need to review what it's safe for you to do to shinigami without killing them."

Luppi pouted _again_. Starrk wondered how upset Aizen would be if he killed him. And how much work it would be. …And how much work it would be to kill Luppi without damaging the girl or the prisoner.

He could probably do it pretty easily, with the gun…

Luppi abruptly developed a survival instinct and left. Excellent.

Of course, by the time they got back to Cell 8, Zommari was gone, and then Starrk was stuck herding the healer through all the rest of the prisoners. It would have been less work to talk Lilynette out of her revenge kicking.

* * *

 **Kira Izuru**

Kira kept expecting Ichimaru to pop up unexpectedly and make a remark about the predicament Kira had gotten himself into. It wouldn't make anything better — he'd probably go on to make the situation worse — but the way it kept _not happening_ was making Kira nervous. Which was ridiculous.

His nerves were frayed enough without that. Abirama Redder was obviously holding a grudge about Kira killing him, and would be extracting full payment at the first opportunity. If Nirgge was a good example, the other fraccion wouldn't do anything to discourage it, and Baraggan… Baraggan was going to be worse than Abirama. Baraggan was going to be very bad.

Although it looked like Baraggan would have to interrupt whatever he would be doing to them to let them go do Division business.

Assuming any of them were ever released from this office.

Kira leaned out over the railing and craned his neck, trying to get a look at distant Third. How much damage had they sustained? He hadn't had a chance to check with his Third Seat. How would he _face_ his Division? He'd failed, and…

"Kira," Yumichika said, gliding up beside him. "We need to talk about strategies."

"…For dealing with… Baraggan-sama?" Kira asked.

"Exactly," Yumichika replied. "That's a good start. _Give him what he wants._ Give him respect, give him obedience, give him adulation—"

Kira was pretty sure his capacity to hero-worship had gasped its last sometime between when Aizen had almost killed Hinamori and the traitors' farewell to the Seireitei, and he wouldn't know how to begin to fake it. "I can do respect and obedience," he sighed.

"That's a start," Yumichika said.

"Ōmaeda-fukutaicho can't."

"Yes." Yumichika sighed, not really up to his usual elegance. "I'd wonder why Baraggan-sama even wanted Ōmaeda-fukutaicho, but then I remember he kept that Chuhlhourne creature around."

"Chuhlhourne is probably alive," Kira pointed out. "You may want to be more polite."

"Must I?"

Kira just shrugged, and snuck a glance over his shoulder at Abirama and Nirgge. They were verbally sparring with Mila Rose again, but Abirama caught Kira looking at them and made a crude gesture, accompanied by a vicious grin.

There was no point in deluding himself. If Mila Rose hadn't been present, Kira would have been raped already. It was going to happen. Probably a lot.

But he'd have to be able to work, so that would put some sort of limit on it. And possibly open him up to very awkward discussions with division members…

But… He knew shame. He was probably better-informed about rape and sexual slavery than most shinigami of his background, thanks to Ichimaru's unorthodox ideas of suitable dinner conversation and good places to visit in the Rukongai. He knew mind games, probably more intimately than any of the fraccion did. Despair was an old friend.

Most of the time Kira had no idea what Ichimaru had been playing at, during his tenure as captain, and he knew his own tenure as vice-captain had left him… not the same as he'd been before. But it hadn't been a bad course of preparation, for this. Probably not as good as the outer Rukongai, but not bad.

…Still no Ichimaru popping up to remark about showing proper appreciation. Where _was_ he? Did it have anything to do with why Matsumoto had been singled out and taken away? Was he trying to persuade her… Kira wasn't sure what Ichimaru might be trying to persuade Matsumoto of, at this point.

Hopefully, whatever was going on, Matsumoto would be back soon.

Hopefully.

There was still no sign of Matsumoto when Iemura arrived with a food delivery several hours later. He explained in hushed tones that the Divisions were being presented with the ultimatum of surrendering shikai-capable zanpakutō or swearing allegiance to Aizen — apart from Second, which was still being subdued, and Eleventh, which was… well, it might have been presented to Eleventh, he wasn't sure.

"Do you know what sort of condition Third is in?" Kira asked.

"It surrendered in good order, I think," Iemura replied. "…There may have been some spillover trouble from Eleventh, but from everything I've heard, the arrancar aren't attacking Division barracks with that kidō marking Tōsen-sama put up." He shrugged. "And the, uh, the leftover Third Seats were sent back, so they should know you're back, or will be back at some point…"

The Third Seat had seen the little yoke demonstration when they first arrived. But Kira guessed they'd have to find out about his status sometime. …Since he did have a yoke, would they be returning Wabisuke?

"Did you see those tra—" Sentarō started, only for Iba to clap a hand over his mouth again.

"Did anyone explain Hisagi and Hinamori's new status?"

Iemura nodded, looking disapproving. "They agreed to this?"

"They may save a lot of lives," Isane said reprovingly.

"…Of course. Yes." He cleared his throat. "Sixth is… chaotic, even though they surrendered. The arrancar either killed or detained all the Kuchiki or Kuchiki-beholden officers."

It was too bad Renji had bankai — since he was another Rukongai native Tōsen might have let him handle Sixth. Then again, as far as Kira could remember Tōsen had never been terribly impressed with Renji. (Ichimaru had never been terribly impressed with Renji, had subtly discouraged Kira from spending time with him — but then he'd subtly discouraged Kira from spending time with anyone.)

"There have also been casualties when officers responded to calls for help, mostly from various noble households," Iemura said. "I don't know much more than that."

Isane stiffened. "Our relief teams?"

"I've been having them hang back," Iemura said, slightly shamefaced. "Until they can announce themselves and request permission from whoever's controlling the area."

Isane grimaced. "Probably the right call. You should get back. I hope I'll be back soon…"

But it was nightfall before yet another arrancar arrived and announced the un-yoked officers were to return to their divisions, and the yoked officers were released into the custody of their masters.

Or master's fraccion, since there was only the three of them.


	3. Day One: Part Three

**See warnings in first chapter.**

* * *

 **Day One: Part Three**

 **Kotetsu Isane**

Before they left First Division and parted ways, Isane made Kiyone swear on their parents' memory and Ukitake-taichō's honor to straight back to Thirteenth and not leave until morning. And not to pick fights with arrancar. Or Tōsen. Or Hisagi or Hinamori. Or anyone else.

"Just — don't get yourself killed!" she said finally. " _Please_!"

Kiyone nodded, wide-eyed. Possibly she was still walking on eggshells after the sudden crying jag. Whatever worked.

Isane arrived at the Emergency Relief Station to find the triage area full of severely traumatized noble children. Yamada Hanatarō was tending to an unconscious brown-haired girl with ugly burns and lacerations all around her neck. A blond girl had the Fourth Seat by the front of his shihakushō.

"Do something! Why aren't you good for anything, _do something_! Sacchi-chan is—"

Isane pried the girl off the Fourth Seat. "Sacchi-chan is being helped, and you are getting in the way. Sit down and be quiet or I will remove you from the room. Fourth Seat, check the rest of the children." She deposited the blond girl with the others and joined Hanatarō. "Report?"

"There was a yoke applied to her and then removed," Hanatarō said. "That's about all I got out of them."

Knowing that, Isane could see the pattern in the burns and cuts — but this was so much worse than what had presented in Kira and Ayasegawa and Ōmaeda. "Can one of you tell me how long the yoke was on her, and how the injuries showed up?" she asked the rest of the children. Most of them seemed too stunned to respond, or to have noticed anything, but the blond one stepped up. Isane braced herself for another tirade, but the girl seemed to have calmed down.

"They got Sacchi before any of the rest of us," she said. "I don't know how long ago it was, but at least three hours before sundown. And she was hurt from the first time I saw her — it got worse whenever they'd order her to do something — but it hurt her when they took it off, too."

The child had only average reiatsu for a Seireitei native, nothing like the vice-captains she'd seen the yoke on before. "Make a note — ask about effect of yokes on those with weaker spiritual power," she told the Fourth Seat. "'They' would be arrancar?" she prompted.

"They were _monsters_ ," one of the other children cried.

"…I think so," the girl said reluctantly. "I didn't… no one told me what arrancar are exactly."

"A group of them, more than five," Hanatarō said. "No Espada, though."

"They had a shinigami with them!" the girl added indignantly. "A really useless one! He was more scared than I was!"

"Aramaki Makizō," Hanatarō said. "From Eleventh Division. He was definitely scared."

Isane could hardly blame him. "What did they order Sacchi to do?" Hopefully nothing along the lines of the things they'd ordered Kira to do…

"Identify nobles," the blond said. "As opposed to retainers. In case anyone tried to hide." After a pause, she added. "It was smart of them, I don't think they would have found Kumoi on their own. And they asked about 'juveniles'. What was that about? _What's going on?_ "

There was an awkward silence as Isane finished healing Sacchi. (She couldn't justify delaying healing a child so everyone could see an example of yoke injuries. No doubt there would be more.)

What the hell did she say? She didn't know if the children knew any of the background!

…She took the easy way out. "Hinamori-fukutaicho will explain. Tōsen-sama authorized her to take charge of noble children." Obviously neither name meant a thing, even to the girl who'd heard of arrancar before in some context. "I'll… send her a hell butterfly. We'll get the rest of you settled in a room until then." She waved to a nurse who'd just been standing by to get the children somewhere out of the way, then looked at the Fourth Seat. "Where's Iemura?"

"On the roof with binoculars," the Fourth Seat said. "We're trying to monitor the situation in Seireitei at large."

"What a good idea," Isane said. "Still, I'll need him down here — I need a full report on what the Fourth has been up to."

 **Ise Nanao**

Nanao returned to Eighth to discover that Third Seat Enjōji and four other officers had decided to venture up to the palace-castle to swear allegiance to Aizen to get their zanpakutō back.

She groaned. "No one else do— No." She stopped herself. "Of course, there will be no negative consequences in this division for anyone who… who chooses to swear allegiance to… Aizen-sama. But…" She hesitated. "But I think that would not be a good idea unless you are _certain_ you can do it… sincerely. I think… there may be a test."

Tōsen had offered to treat Hisagi as loyal without formal pledge like it was a big deal. Like he was letting him out of something beyond kneeling before Aizen (again) and promising loyalty.

"Understood," the Fourth Seat said. "Vice-captain, there seems like there's fighting going on…"

"Noble houses," Nanao replied grimly. "They're targeting noble houses, that'll be most of the fighting." She reconsidered. "Well, Eleventh probably accounts for a lot of it, too, but — noble houses."

"Should we…?"

"No." She just had to hope a shrine family was minor enough not to attract much attention. "…If any come here for shelter, we can let them in, and discuss it with Tōsen-sama later." Nanao rubbed her temples — she was a mess. "I'm going to freshen up a bit and eat something, then I'll address the division."

Nanao washed her face and re-did her hair, cleaned her glasses, and made sure her attitude was up to standards. She bolted down some food, ordered an unseated officer to make tea, and actually contemplated stealing some of Kyōraku's sake out of his office — it always seemed to make _him_ feel better — but decided she needed her wits about her.

She did not allow herself to wonder about what was happening to Kyōraku — to all the captains. The only thing she could do for them now was keep the Eighth going, and the Seireitei.

 **Yadōmaru Lisa**

Apacci didn't touch any of them, apart from ostentatiously poking each of them while muttering about snake bitches with inflated ideas of their own authority. Hiyori was already shaking with outrage anyway. Instead, she marched them through a confusing portal and then endless identical white stone halls. The first window they passed looked out over Seireitei from the perspective of Sōkyoku Hill. Mashiro stalled there for a moment. "I think Sixth Division is on fire!"

Hiyori snarled. "The whole place is probably going to go up soon. Serves them right."

"No," Apacci said. "Tōsen-sama wouldn't approve of that, and sadly he's in charge of shinigami town."

Mashiro scowled. "Fucking Tōsen." Apacci laughed.

The next window looked out on — down on, they were very high — endless moonlit white sands. This was not a view you could get from anywhere on Sōkyoku Hill. "What the—"

"The palace is in both Hueco Mundo and Soul Society," Apacci said. "…Somehow, who knows, I don't care."

Lisa didn't either. Hachi might be able to figure it out.

She hoped Hachi was okay.

They finally reached a large door marked with a "3", and passed through into a large chamber filled with couches and cushions, with a large pool in the middle.

"Finally," Apacci said. "This new place may be smaller than Las Noches, but the layout is a pain in the ass."

"Maybe it's modeled after Seireitei's," Lisa suggested dryly.

Apacci made a face. "The place sounds like so much fun already. Now, none of you move, I need a bath."

None of them moved. Fortunately the yoke allowed breathing without any trouble. Standing still was a great opportunity to notice how much they were still injured, though — and even the unnaturally healed injuries still hurt. Kind of a lot, actually.

Apacci stripped off, left her uniform in the middle of the floor, and plunged into the pool. When she emerged, she struck a pose. "Like what you see?"

"You look very… fit…?" Mashiro tried.

The arrancar huffed and sonido'd off somewhere, returning a moment later with a new uniform and a bottle of alcohol. She flopped down on a couch. "Your turn!"

"…What?"

"You're all filthy, and those clothes look stupid," the arrancar announced. "You, braid girl, lose the clothes and get in the pool."

The water was colder than Lisa expected, but she spitefully submerged up to her neck before she did any scrubbing. There had been a lot of dust from buildings being destroyed, and combined with sweat and blood — well, she wasn't going to deny she needed a bath. Just not… this bath.

(Why had the Gotei built an entire replica town anyway? There was never any chance of it fooling Aizen. Maybe Urahara had been worried about humans detecting a missing chunk of town from a distance and coming to investigate? There were going to be some very surprised and unhappy humans _now_.)

Apacci finally ordered Lisa out of the bath and Hiyori into the bath, and then ogled Lisa for a bit. "Not bad," she said eventually. "And you were a decent fighter — you'll do."

What the hell did you even _say_ to that?!

Hiyori's appearance, once out of the bath, elicited a wrinkled nose and a "meh".

"Meh?" Hiyori said. " _Meh_?"

"C'mon, Hiyori, what did you want her to say?" Lisa muttered.

"I am not _meh_!"

"You're a shorty and you look like a child," Apacci said. "Of course you could compensate with technique — you yell so much your tongue must be pretty strong—"

Hiyori made an inarticulate noise of rage and attacked.

"Down!" Apacci ordered sharply, and Hiyori slammed into the floor. "Remember your place."

Hiyori growled into the cold, wet, stone.

Mashiro got a "Niiiiiice," and almost a boob squeeze until Apacci remembered she wasn't supposed to be touching. Mashiro herself looked very unsure how to react.

"Um, thhhhaaaaaank you?"

Oh, hell. Mashiro wasn't a child physically or mentally, she'd been a functional if flaky vice-captain, she wasn't really innocent, why did she _get_ like this? Maybe she was hoping acting like a child would put the arrancar off, if Hiyori's looks did? But it didn't seem to be working—

"Now jump up and—" Apacci broke off suddenly, her attention shooting to the door just before there was a knock.

"Healer for the prisoners," said a male voice.

"You stay where you are!" Apacci barked. "…Please. Primera." She ran out of the room, returning with a pile of blankets which she tossed at the Visored. "Cover up in these and sit on the couch."

Raising an eyebrow at the sudden attitude change, Lisa wrapped up and sat. Mashiro almost beat her there. Hiyori took longer because she insisted on stomping the whole way.

Apacci inspected them, then opened the door to admit the Primera and Inoue Orihime. The Primera looked like he'd rather be anywhere else; Orihime looked miserable and exhausted and all cried out. She didn't speak except to summon her fairy things.

It looked like Apacci was mostly busy trying to surreptitiously glower at the Primera, and the Primera was asleep standing up, so Lisa took a chance. "Inoue," she whispered. "Do you know — the others?"

"Everyone's alive," Orihime said hoarsely. "They're just — just — they're going to do horrible things to everyone. Horrible things." Then she started crying again.

The Primera woke up enough to look kind of alarmed as he escorted her away.

The woman Espada and what must be the third fraccion showed up not long afterwards. "What was Starrk doing here?" the Espada asked.

"He's escorting the healing human for some reason," Apacci said with a shrug. "How'd everything go?"

"Seireitei has a rich landscape," the Espada said.

"We found a house to take, so we're not just down a hall from…" The third fraccion made a vague gesture. "All that. It's comfortable, and near a lake — it was just being occupied by some stupid old nobles or something, it was easy to clear out. Sung-Sun's keeping anyone else from poaching it."

How… appealing.

"Before we go down into the city," the Espada said, addressing the Visored. "I am Tier Harribel. Tell me your names."

"Kuna Mashiro!" Dammit, she was doing the childish thing again.

Why did Lisa have to be the grown-up here? "Yadōmaru Lisa."

"Sarugaki Hiyori." The words were dragged out of Hiyori almost painfully.

"You are mine," Harribel said. "You are junior to Mila Rose, Sung-Sun, and Apacci, and will obey them. We all serve Aizen-sama, and you will obey him. Tōsen commands the Seireitei, and you will obey him and his duly authorized representatives."

Each command hit the yoke like lead. Lisa could almost see the chains wrapping around them.

"You are _not_ commanded to obey any other arrancar, including other Espada. Use good judgment and discretion, retreat first, but you are permitted to defend yourselves if necessary."

Lisa gave it a week tops before Hiyori got some additional orders to augment what passed for her good judgment and discretion.

"Follow me," Harribel ordered, and they did.

Mashiro was still so damn wide-eyed, Hiyori was almost visibly shredding herself against the yoke… _Why_ did Lisa have to be the _adult_ here?

She walked a bit closer to the Mila Rose arrancar. "I have a proposition for you three…"

 **Kira Izuru**

The fighting had stopped and it was fully dark by the time Nirgge and Abirama herded Kira, Yumichika, and Ōmaeda into the area around Second Division. Kira was grateful. He wasn't sure if the yoke could force _effective_ fighting, but it would definitely keep him from helping anyone. There were arrancar and damaged buildings and bodies in dark Punishment Forces uniforms everywhere. Regular shinigami dead weren't as common, but there were more than a few. (Ōmaeda had been vocally outraged, before Nirgge ordered him into silence.) There were survivors, plenty of them, but they were staying out of sight.

Kira wondered if Ōmaeda Marenoshin had escaped after refusing to surrender the division.

They didn't go to Second Division offices, though — in fact, if Kira recalled correctly, they were heading in the right direction to be going to the Ōmaeda estate. But there were probably lots of things in this direction.

Ōmaeda was practically vibrating with anxiety, though. And the yoke was — twisting, and drawing blood, and — was this what it looked like when someone fought an order?

They stopped at an intersection and Nirgge cursed, looking around. "This place is a fucking maze."

"I could get in the air—" Abirama started.

"Nirgge! Abirama! This way!" Another of Baraggan's fraccion appeared and waved at them. "The place isn't as big as it could be, but it's really cushy. We tried another one first but it was full of weird traps…"

…They were continuing towards the Ōmaeda manor. Ōmaeda made a strangled noise, and a thicker line of blood ran down from the yoke.

As they made the last turn, they passed some people coming in the other direction — Gantenbainne escorting Hinamori. Hinamori was cleaned up and wearing a white kosode. She was carrying a little girl, who was sobbing against her neck.

"You have to be brave," Hinamori was saying to the girl. "I know, I know, but you have to be brave." She looked up at Ōmaeda, then back at the girl, then back at Ōmaeda, and grimaced. "Can you hold out your hand quick for your big brother Marechiyo to hold, just for a minute? He can't talk to you right now, and he doesn't want to be seen, but can you let him hold your hand?" She caught the girl's head before she could raise it. "Just hold out your hand."

The girl did raise a hand, and Ōmaeda took it as gently as Kira had ever seen him do anything. He managed to whisper, "Mareyo-chan," before he clapped his free hand over his mouth to stifle a cry of pain.

"Marechiyo-nii-sama," the girl sniffled. "They — they—"

"You need to be brave," Hinamori repeated. "I'm sure your big brother will come see you as soon as he can, but right now you need to come with me and be brave."

"Mama—"

Ōmaeda got himself under control enough to take his hand off his mouth. "Be brave, Mareyo-chan," he whispered, and gave her hand a last squeeze before letting go.

Hinamori mouthed _I'll take care of her_ at Ōmaeda, and then Gantenbainne was ushering her away, and Mareyo was crying harder again, and tears were running down Ōmaeda's face.

"Hey, keep up!" Nirgge said.

They kept up, Kira and Yumichika flanking Ōmaeda, providing as much support as they could. Because after that…

Marenoshin wasn't in the manor — maybe he'd gotten away, or died at Second or in the field. The rest of the family was, along with a half-dozen servants. Judging from the wounds, Ōmaeda Mareka, Marejirōsabu, and Maremi all went down fighting, with an heirloom sword or furniture or bare hands. And they hadn't all died instantly, but they hadn't been left to suffer. Ōmaeda tried to kneel by his mother's body, and was forced back to his feet. He looked… shattered. Kira didn't know what to say.

Yumichika leaned in. "Get this ugliness out of your system now, so _you_ can be brave when you see Mareyo-chan again. You haven't lost everything. Focus on _that_."

Ggio apologized to Nirgge for not leaving Maremi alive so he could have a woman he wouldn't crush. Nirgge shoved him through a partition.

The three shinigami were led into what was now, apparently, Baraggan's throne room. The Espada's bone chair had been draped in rich fabrics. Chuhlhourne was offering the old Espada wine, Poww was standing by standing at attention, and Findorr was giving a report.

"…Szayelaporro is still in Hueco Mundo with orders to collect the captain of Twelfth Division, who is reported to have liquified and escaped into the sands." Findorr managed to present this with a straight face even. "Aaroniero has withdrawn to his residence in the new castle. He has a prisoner he wants to keep as a pet. Yammy broke a wall in the new palace and was sent to Hueco Mundo for 'exercise'. Luppi has returned to the palace to help with the prisoners. Dordoni—"

"I don't care about the rest of those has-beens," Baraggan said. "Nirgge!"

"Your Majesty!" Nirgge said, doing that odd salute. "We have your shinigami slaves!"

Baraggan grunted, eyes on the shinigami. "About time you got here." He spat on the floor. "Charlotte, Abirama, I am disgusted that you lost to this shinigami garbage. Nirgge, you should have killed yours."

"We're sorry we failed, your Majesty!"

"Well… we have until sunrise before they need to report to duty. Prove you're superior."

So it started.

 **Ichimaru Gin**

"So, Gin, how are you? Enjoying the view?" Aizen said pleasantly.

(Gin wasn't sure whether Aizen had picked up the teleportation from the Hōgyoku or the Royal Realm, but either way, he was enjoying it _way too much_.)

"Lovely view, Aizen-taichō," Gin said as pleasantly as he could manage. It wasn't even completely false — the Royal Realm was remarkably intact and devoid of blood, bodies, or battle-damage. (Possibility: Aizen annihilated Zero Division remotely and cleanly. Possibility: Aizen carefully cleaned up the Royal Realm after the fight. Possibility: Zero Division withdrew to regroup rather than die against the Hōgyoku and are waiting for an opportunity.) Gin had not, of course, had much opportunity to look around, since Aizen had him sort of… melded… into a stone chair. (He took a twisted kind of comfort in it — surely Aizen wouldn't be punishing him so much if his betrayal were _really_ accounted for in the plan from the beginning?) But he still had plenty to look at, since Aizen was very kindly allowing him to look through some of the viewing windows through which someone in the Royal Realm could observe the Seireitei! So far he'd seen nobles being slaughtered (yawn), extremely stressed vice-captains (amusing), Grimmjow and Nnoitra versus Eleventh Division (mildly amusing), arrancar trying to understand Seireitei social structures (quite amusing), and Izuru being brutalized by Baraggan and his fraccion (not amusing).

(He'd underestimated Tōsen. This purge-the-nobles, reform-the-Gotei gambit was a hell of a lot more coherent than anything he'd expected the man to come up with. It could be described as justice from certain points of view, some of his actions might even pass as minimizing bloodshed! Seriously, saner than Tōsen had been in decades if not longer.)

"I wanted to bring you up to date on something," Aizen said. "Do you remember that scheme you came up with for lower-ranked recruits after a conquest to prove their loyalty to me?"

"Think I had a couple of those, Aizen-taichō." Gin's personal favorite was just getting them all hooked on opium or something. Simple and effective.

"The one involving proving their disrespect for the old regime," Aizen said.

There had been a couple of those, too, but Gin was pretty sure Aizen meant the most extreme one. "Really? You're going with that? I know you have enough prisoners for it but… Isn't it sort of inefficient?" And it relied a lot on shame and implicit blackmail to ensure continued loyalty — not nearly as good a leash as an addiction.

"Very efficient," Aizen said. "It will simultaneously wear down the captain-class prisoners so they can be yoked."

"…If you say so, Aizen-taichō."

Without even a gesture on Aizen's part, the viewing window changed to show several different perspectives of a long hall. On each side of the hall were cell doors made up completely of bars. Each cell had a few steps down, and some equipment — a table with a sort of frame on top of it, chains, ropes, whips, canes, and so on.

"Somewhere in your new trilocating palace, I assume, Aizen-taichō?" Gin raised an eyebrow. "Are your new recruits even going to know what to do with all that?"

"I think it's fairly self-explanatory. If not, Loly can do a demonstration."

What an interesting thought. "You're just going to turn them in there with…?"

"Prove you are loyal by demonstrating your contempt for the old regime."

"I see." There was still a fair amount of room for interpretation in that. "So where are the prisoners?"

"Regularly they're in sekkiseki cells — I'll only have them here when the proving ground is operational." Aizen smiled briefly, obviously pleased with the nomenclature. "This is outside what will be normal hours, but I think we should get started. They should be moving them in right about… now."

And there were a couple Exequias, escorting Kyōraku. He looked like he was speaking to the Exequias — probably something inane. He didn't react much when he was taken into a cell and chained face down to a table, and if he realized what this setup was meant for he gave no sign of it. He _did_ raise his head sharply when Ukitake, the next to be brought in, started coughing. Being chained in a prone position obviously did nothing to ease the paroxysm.

"You worried about that at all, Aizen-taichō?" Gin asked. "Ukitake croaking of his own accord?"

"If he does, I'll realize in time to revive him with no difficulty," Aizen said. All right then.

(Really, Ukitake dying had a better chance of breaking Kyōraku than either of them being raped any number of times, and it still probably wasn't above half. If he'd been working on them, Gin would have gone straight for the vice-captain weak point, and even that wasn't a sure thing.)

Sasakibe was mostly unemotional, but he was either genuinely confused by the setup or faking it pretty well. All right, _him_ , this might break. Assuming anyone actually wanted to fuck him. Hmm. He wasn't _bad_ -looking, necessarily…

Byakuya, now — Byakuya would have them lining up. For the moment he was keeping up a satisfactory Kuchiki stone face. Gin wondered if he'd be so stoic if he knew what had gone down with the Kuchiki. Or what he was in for.

The next two were eyebrow-raisers. "I have to imagine most of your recruits will look sideways at any of their peers who voluntarily fucks Komamura _or_ Hitsugaya." Gin considered. "I guess if you got the right mood going…"

"Or they could beat them," Aizen said. "Like a bad dog or a disobedient child."

"Good point, and it'd be effective if they framed it like that," Gin agreed. Komamura was shouting something, probably for Aizen or Tōsen to… Gin couldn't begin to guess what Komamura was expecting. Hitsugaya was quiet, glaring but not struggling.

Renji was letting the Exequias drag him when he arrived, but started struggling and shouting when he saw the setup. _He_ 'd figured it out fast enough. If anyone else really hadn't known, they did now. Sasakibe looked outraged and appalled, Komamura shouted some more, Byakuya still didn't crack an expression, and—

"I thought the surprise would get a bit more of a reaction out of Tōshirō-chan," Gin said, disappointed. The boy had just put his head down on the table.

"I'm afraid it's probably not a surprise for him, or not as much as it should be," Aizen said regretfully. "I invited the arrancar to express their feelings about any previous encounters to the shinigami prisoners, and Luppi got… somewhat carried away."

"Ahhh, I see." Gin watched Renji kick an Exequias across the hallway. "Like… in released form?"

"Unfortunately. I had to have someone break it up and fetch Orihime."

That had to be about the least sexy hentai Gin had ever inadvertently pictured. "At least it wasn't Yammy, I guess."

"Yammy is not allowed to handle shinigami prisoners without Ulquiorra's supervision."

Lucky Ulquiorra. But then he did seem to like Yammy, unlike practically everyone else in any realm.

"…Except possibly Hirako-taichō," Aizen continued. "I may see how he gets along with Yammy."

"Visored aren't _that_ much more durable… but I assume you know what you're doing, Aizen-taichō." The Exequias finally had Renji chained down, and were now trying to get Madarame Ikkaku to a cell. "How many people were surprised to find out he has bankai?"

"Some of the vice-captains didn't know, but none of them were very surprised."

Gin made a private wager with himself that Madarame would bite that Exequias's hand clean off. "You planning on including Kenpachi in this, too? Cause has certain logistical difficulties."

Aizen chuckled. "No, Kenpachi will be fighting problem arrancar in a sekkiseki pit."

Clever. Gin nodded approval (and to congratulate himself on winning the wager). "What about Kurotsuchi? That even makes Kenpachi sound like a good idea." The Exequias resorted to strangling Madarame into unconsciousness.

"He hasn't resolidified."

"I _see_."

Suì-Fēng was carried in already so tied up she could barely move. It saved a lot of time. Gin doubted anything not involving Yoruichi would _really_ break Suì-Fēng, but she'd be as popular as Byakuya, and not just because women were so underrepresented. Everyone wanted to make the untouchable ones crack.

There was one cell left. "Unohana or Shihōin?" Gin asked. "And where's the other one?"

"They are, sadly, both unavailable at this time," Aizen replied. "But we do need another female option…"

No.

 _No_.

No no no.

Rangiku identified the setup as soon as she saw it, too, and her lips curled back in a snarl. But she was scared, too, if you knew what to look for.

She was strong. She'd survive this. She _would_. Stronger than the rest of them, even if she was the only one without bankai-

 _Gin_ snarled and pointlessly lunged at Aizen, the chair keeping him from moving a centimeter. "Let her out of there! Don't you dare put her there because of me!"

Aizen smiled, and disappeared, and Gin had nothing to do but sit and watch the prisoners eventually realize it wasn't _arrancar_ who'd be abusing them now. (Even though he didn't care, he still automatically noted that Ukitake, Sasakibe, and Komamura were shocked to see non-Hollows; Kyouraku, Suì-Fēng, Renji, and Madarame — and Rangiku — were grimly unhappy but not shocked; Byakuya still wouldn't make an expression; and Hitsugaya was probably just relieved Luppi wasn't going to be involved.)

Rangiku was strong, but Rangiku _wasn't supposed to get hurt_. She was supposed to be safely out of it. Shit.

Rangiku wasn't supposed to be singled out.

Because of him.

 _Shit_.

 **Arisawa Tatsuki**

They let Mizuiro take the lead in talking to the police, because it let everyone else tell almost the truth. He very shyly admitted that he remembered a lot of things that didn't really make sense and couldn't have happened, like an evil angel vaporizing everything, and a beautiful woman with a sword saving them and then their finding her or something, and a giant picking up the car and carrying it? And a monster chasing them through a dark cave. It meant the hospital added a bunch of drug tests to all the other tests, but at least Keigo could babble about his trauma without worrying about upsetting some delicate cover story.

They already agreed to let Asano Mizuho take the lead in talking to the inevitable media frenzy. She would probably tear them apart with her teeth. (The people who stayed unconscious back in town weren't all awake yet, but they were waking up, slowly. Mizuho was already berating Keigo in her sleep. She would be awake by the time the police let the media through.)

Karin took the lead dealing with Don Kanonji, when he wasn't being corralled by his agent/babysitter. She seemed to have the most experience.

Tatsuki wished she could take the lead in tracking down Urahara, wherever he was, and breaking his damn smiling face. But she didn't know where to start, and she didn't want to have to explain to her mother that she really did know something more about this.

(Not enough to do any damn good.)

(Her mother was alive, picked up from their house just after they skidded out of the Kurosaki Clinic. She could face Keigo without trouble, his sister's here too, and Mizuiro… if Mizuiro's lost anyone he's not showing it, but Chizuru, and the others when they wake up, and Karin and Yuzu— No one had ever given her a chance to stop this from happened, but she still felt like she should have, somehow.)

(Ichigo must be _destroyed_ , wherever he was.)

(The big crybaby.)

(She hoped he was okay.)


	4. Day Two: Part One

**Hisagi Shūhei**

After following Tōsen around almost all night, Hisagi had the morning to evaluate the state of the divisions and make sure things were in order at Ninth before meeting with Tōsen again. Then he was supposed to accompany Tōsen to three more meetings, the last one with division leadership.

He hoped the energy pills from the Fourth didn't have side-effects from overuse or anything.

First was very, very quiet. Hisagi guessed they were intimidated by the palace looming directly over then. He certainly was. Third Seat Okikiba had set up a sort of makeshift office in their mess hall rather than take Sasakibe's, though he must have retrieved some paperwork from it. The head captain's office was now Tōsen's.

"Despite the former Captain-Commander's orders, not everyone in the division is… prepared, yet, to swear allegiance to… Aizen-sama," Okikiba said, like it was a bad thing. "Under a fifth of the division has… gone up the Hill. We are trying to ready ourselves—"

A _fifth_? _Shit._ "Don't move too fast!" Hisagi said quickly. Too quickly? "If—" Damn, he couldn't _discourage_ them, that wasn't allowed, but— Finally, he just said, "There's a test that goes with swearing allegiance, but I can't tell you what it is. People that fail the test may be yoked or killed. So… be very careful."

Okikiba blinked rapidly. "I… see."

And it would have been nice to know earlier, but what could you do.

Second was a mess. Ōmaeda, in his office, looked like hell warmed over. "Regular Second is at about forty percent strength once all the injuries are considered," he said. "We should get up to about eighty when they've all recovered. The remaining twenty percent — most of them are dead, a few are missing."

The arrancar really had been fighting to disable. Hisagi was… impressed? "You've contacted the Fourth for aid?"

"Yes, and the worst cases are there." Ōmaeda sighed. "The Punishment Force — under half of them were taken alive. The rest are about three-quarters dead, one quarter… unaccounted-for. Onmitsukidō, almost none taken alive, one-third dead, two-thirds unaccounted-for." He shrugged. "Though it wouldn't surprise me if a few of the missing ones didn't just go to swear allegiance without checking in. Some of them don't do anything halfway."

"About that…" Hisagi hesitated. He still wasn't quite sure how to present this. "People should be careful, about going to swear allegiance. I can't tell you any details but there's some sort of test." Although he guessed mostly people from Second would do what they needed for the result they wanted.

"I'll be sure to tell anyone who actually talks to me about it."

"Any sign of, uh, your stand-in?"

"Unaccounted-for," Ōmaeda said, and scowled darkly at his desk. "I'd be happier about his maybe escaping if he'd done a better job of protecting his own family."

Oh no. "Are they…?"

"My youngest sister is alive. Hinamori has her."

That was better than nothing. "I'm sorry."

Ōmaeda shrugged listlessly. "You might have been able to help if they were alive."

There was an awkward pause.

"So, you think it will probably be several weeks before Second is action-ready?" Hisagi said finally.

"I think Second should focus on tasks the Punishment Force would usually do," Ōmaeda said. "I don't know what's going on in the Maggots' Nest, but something is, and no one I'd ordinarily send to investigate is available!"

"…Good point. And…" Should he ask about Baraggan? He couldn't bring himself to ask about Baraggan. "I think there will be another division leadership meeting tonight."

Ōmaeda just nodded glumly. "Stay out of the lockup. They bite."

Hisagi didn't even try to decipher that. Or visit the lockup.

Third was in much better condition than Second; Kira was in somewhat worse condition than Ōmaeda. (Physically, anyway. Mentally, he looked… no more despondent than usual.)

"We had minimal casualties during the takeover," Kira reported. "But we did have a dozen people who decided to swear allegiance, and none of them have come back yet — do you know if there's a… timetable on that?"

Hisagi fought not to wince. "Some of it may be that there are a lot of people, what with some noble retainers, and Eleventh, as well as everyone else. And I think there's some amount of training. So you don't need to assume the worst yet."

Kira sighed deeply. "But?"

"But there's a test, of loyalty. I can't tell you what it involves, but it's… not an easy test."

"Of course," Kira said heavily. "I'll advise people of that."

Fourth was buzzing with activity, unsurprisingly. There were wounded from multiple divisions, and civilians, and the not-quite-civilians of nobles' private guards, and one arrancar complaining loudly to anyone who would listen about how he'd fallen through a hole in the street. He found Isane finishing up with a broken leg on an Academy student.

"What happened there?" he asked, concerned. "I didn't think there'd been any fighting around the Academy."

Isane shook her head. "He fell off a roof fighting over a telescope, to see what was going on over in Sixth. Hisagi, I already told Hinamori about this, but — I have some concerns about the… yoke. Medical ones. We had a young civilian girl who was yoked for just a few hours and almost died. It hurts even vice-captains. It is my medical opinion that anyone below seated officer level is in danger from the yoke and needs at least daily checkups."

"I… see," Hisagi managed. "I'll certainly… I _think_ Tōsen-sama will take that into account…"

"Secondarily, please convey to whomever it concerns that the arrancar f— uh, messing around in the sewers had better not damage anything, and if they're still there the next time cleaning comes around they'd better be prepared to do it themselves."

"…I'm confident Tōsen-sama will get that taken care of. He, um, is committed to keeping from arrancar causing problems messing around."

"That's a relief."

"Have you… had anyone go up the hill to swear allegiance?"

She shook her head. "No. I think there's some hope that healing-specific zanpakuto may be returned regardless? They sent Hanatarō back with his…"

"I don't know anything about that — but if anyone does want to swear allegiance, they should be aware that there's a test."

Fifth was fairly good shape, but it had more people gone up the hill than from First through Fourth put together, even with the maximum estimate from Second. Trying to follow Hinamori's lead? And she didn't know about the test yet. (Hisagi prayed she'd never know about the test, but his hopes were not high.) He found out about it from the Third Seat, as Hinamori herself was passed out over her desk surrounded by jumpy noble children who tended to burst into tears if anyone tried to approach.

Hisagi warned the Third Seat about the test. Vaguely.

Sixth was… in better shape than Second, and much better shape than when he'd been there the previous night. The fires were out and the bodies were out of plain sight. Shirogane Ginjirō seemed to have things more or less under control.

"We're at about eighty percent where Sixth was before," he said. "Should be up to ninety in a few weeks. But almost all of those losses are in the upper ranks, and I need to get to know the division as it is now, so our effectiveness is going to drop."

There was a lot more judgment in Shirogane's eyes then there had been in the others'. He hadn't been there — hadn't seen what the options had been — couldn't see Hisagi was doing this for _everyone_ —

"Right," Hisagi said. "Have you had many people going up the hill? Because you should be aware there's a test—"

It turned out most of the people from Sixth who went to swear allegiance, or intended to do so, were noble-descended and at risk of negative attention from Tōsen if they didn't.

"They…" What should he _say_? "Just… be aware it's not a trivial test."

Seventh was blessedly normal. Well, Komamura's damn dog was whining and occasionally howling in spite of Iba's attempts to bribe it into silence, and he inevitably got dragged into a bizarre conversation about what the most manly thing to do was, but compared to Sixth, normal. And they'd had a few people go up the hill earlier, but since Iba got back he'd been suggesting they wait for more information.

"Good call," Hisagi said. "There's a test."

"What kind of test?"

"I can't tell you what kind of test. No one can say what kind of test. But it's a big test."

Iba sighed. "Some of my guys will want to try it anyway. But thanks for the heads up. You want to ask Tōsen… sama if the arrancar will be doing fire brigade duty, or should we get on that?"

Hisagi frowned. "Uh… good point."

"There's also… uh… we've got some, uh… new transfers. From Eleventh." When Hisagi blinked, Iba lowered his voice. "Eleventh Division has to go up the hill, leave Seireitei, or die. Some of the cooler heads claimed to be from here and said they got caught up in the fighting by accident. I backdated the transfers in the records."

"Ah. Okay. I should be able to cover for that."

Eighth was also in relatively good order, and Nanao came right out and asked him if there was a test. Then she adjusted her glasses at him when he said he couldn't tell her what it was. And again when he said he didn't know why they were holding Matsumoto.

Once he got to Ninth he'd be there for hours, so he skipped to Tenth. He could barely bring himself to face them. Objectively they weren't any worse off than Sixth — better, since they had their own Third Seat and the rest of the division was more or less intact — and objectively, none of this was because of him at all—

 _"Tōsen-sama, are we going to be bringing in Matsumoto-fukutaichō? She'd be able to help a lot with… people stuff—"_

 _"Shūhei, that harlot has taken shameless advantage of your good nature. Aizen-sama has better use for her in the proving ground and I am glad of it."_

 _"The — she's not a— What's the proving ground?"_

 _Tōsen told him what the proving ground was._

—It was still hard to face a division that couldn't understand why it wasn't getting its vice-captain back. They wanted an explanation he couldn't give them. And wouldn't want to, if he could.

("Harlot"?)

The area around Eleventh was had a lot of collateral battle damage, a lot of bodies, and a lot of grumbling arrancar clearing away bodies and wreckage. Fourth Division wouldn't have to do that, at least.

Eleventh itself was badly damaged and almost, but not quite, empty. Yumichika was just leaving seated officers' housing, carrying several bags. Unlike Kira and Ōmaeda, he looked immaculate, if a little strange in the black-and-white uniform. Curious, given how vitriolic his fight had been.

"Hisagi-fukutaichō," he said politely. "Or do you have a new title now?"

"Not yet," Hisagi said. "You're… packing?"

"I can't imagine Tōsen-sama is going to let the building stand empty for long," Yumichika said. "It will be repurposed or demolished, and either way I want my belongings out of it." He tossed his head. "I'm not sure what the _official_ disposition of former Eleventh Division members will be, when those that went to swear allegiance return, but for now I will be assisting Ōmaeda at Second."

That sounded like a _very_ good idea. "I'm not sure either. Do you have any idea what the numbers are, on Eleventh Division members who went up the hill?"

"Of course not. I was otherwise occupied." Right. "Most of the upper seats are probably dead. I suggest you ask the arrancar for a body count and subtract. Maki-Maki said some left the Seireitei rather than swear or die — he might have an idea how many."

Hisagi couldn't remember who Maki-Maki was. "Where would I find him?"

"He was hiding in the barracks when I found him, but he's probably moved by now."

Hisagi should really probably be asking those "new transfers" of Iba's. "All right. Good luck at Second."

Quite unexpectedly, Nemu was at Twelfth, directing the movement of a lot of… science stuff into the SRDI. There were several strange-looking arrancar among the movers. Rather than looking relieved at his vice-captain's presence, Akon looked… numbly horrified.

"We're being turned over to Szayelaporro… sama, I guess. Those are some of his fraccion. He modifies them so he can eat them to regain strength."

"…Really." That might even be a little worse than Kurotsuchi.

"Kurotsuchi-fukutaichō believes he would have no… long-term use for any division members outside the SRDI, and has ordered them all transferred to other divisions as soon as possible, before Szayelaporro… sama returns from Hueco Mundo." Akon stared at the… science stuff. "He'll probably be in a bad mood, because he had to empty his entire Hueco Mundo laboratory and tear up the floor because Kurotsuchi-taichō liquified in it and he's still trying to find… all of him."

Um.

"And in the meantime we need to hold his subjects. Which fine, it's not like that's new, but doing it for an arrancar is—" Akon broke off. "Where can we transfer our non-scientific personnel?"

"Something for the meeting, I think," Hisagi said. "Will Kurotsuchi-fukutaichō be staying?"

"Maybe for a while. Then she has to go back to Hueco Mundo to help… hell… _collect_ Kurotsuchi-taichō."

He made the visit to Thirteenth as quick as he could. Sentarō and Kiyone both glared at him the whole time. No, they hadn't had any casualties to speak up. No, they hadn't had any _trai_ — Hadn't had any people go up the hill. Thirteenth was ready to go, except for lack of zanpakutō.

And then Ninth. After Fifth, he was prepared for the huge spike in people gone up the hill, but that didn't make him any happier about it.

He really wasn't looking forward to dealing with them when they came back.

 **Yadōmaru Lisa**

Lisa dragged herself out of the bath wishing for a shower. (She missed the Living World bitterly, for so many reasons.) All the battle injuries were long gone, but a night with the Tres Bestias left her looking like she'd fallen down a flight of stairs into a pit of attack monkeys. (Everyone knew she was a pervert. She'd probably always dreamed of this.) The yoke was a dull burn around her neck and shoulders. From the column of smoke she could see out the window, something else was burning more literally.

It was morning in Seireitei.

She'd never planned to come back here at all, far less under these circumstances.

Wrapped in a towel, she shuffled back down the hall towards the room the Visored had claimed as their own. It looked like Hiyori and Mashiro had at least done their part in cleaning up the bloodstains and other signs of the house's previous occupants' abrupt departure — Lisa didn't know what noble family they were attached to and didn't care, either, but it was a good-sized place with three baths. (She had a feeling that would be a very welcome feature in the future.) And it had more actual constructed rooms than some places in Seireitei, which was also nice. At least when they retreated into "their" room they could be _reasonably_ confident Apacci or Mila Rose wouldn't come crashing through the wall.

Mashiro was asleep, tangled up in her sheet, drooling off the edge of her futon. Hiyori was scowling in the corner, scratching angrily at her yoke. Or possibly at the scabs of the scratches from the first time she went after the yoke. Had Orihime healed those? Whatever.

They were lucky that the woman Espada had taken an interest in them, Lisa knew. She had no doubt at all the rest of their friends, presumably somewhere in Aizen's new… castle… were in considerably worse straits. And they were lucky the arrancar had agreed to leave the other two alone in exchange for Lisa's willing active participation. (It wasn't anything she hadn't read about. It felt good. Eventually.)

"Unless they're interested, of course," Apacci had added with a toothy smile.

Which probably meant they were planning on seducing Mashiro, eventually. But not yet.

"You look like shit," Hiyori said.

"So do you," Lisa replied.

"At least I didn't let three different arrancar chew on me."

"At least I'm not a shrimp."

Hiyori sneered, but couldn't seem to muster the energy for an actual attack. "Snake Girl brought clothes while you were drowning yourself." She pointed to a pile by the door. "She said they were busy and would come get us sometime after noon, and not to get in trouble."

The clothing was arrancar white on the top, shinigami black on the bottom, and looked like a uniform rather than two uniforms mixed and matched. Lisa was equally unenthusiastic about both, but would put up with it for intact clothes.

After dressing (covering up most but not all of the bite marks), Lisa wandered to the window. "Do you know what that fire is?"

"No, but it's been burning since we got here," Hiyori grumbled. "There've been others, too."

Lisa leaned out the window. Not a twitch from the yoke. "I think I might go look around," she said experimentally. Still nothing.

"What for?" Hiyori said. "We know where everyone who matters is, and it's not out there."

"We don't know for sure," Lisa said. "Even if we did I'd rather look around than stay in here all day."

"Suit yourself."

"I may be back in five minutes if it turns out the yoke really is tethered to the house."

She jumped out the window. The yoke wasn't tethered to the house.

Lisa loitered for a bit, people-watching. There were shinigami, who seemed scared half-witless but not too badly damaged, at least the ones moving around. There were arrancar — not as many as she was half-expecting. Not as many bodies as she was expecting, either.

There were some fires still burning at various noble compounds, Second and Sixth were messes, and Eleventh was trashed (and where most of the shinigami bodies were), but nothing compared to the huge fire which was, if she recalled correctly, completely engulfing the location of Central 46.

Finally she gave up on pretenses and headed for Eighth.

Kyōraku wasn't around, she could tell immediately — no surprise there. Little Nanao was, all grown up with a vice-captain's badge on her arm, standing just outside the gate talking to a man in black-and-white with—

She couldn't think of any good reason for someone to have 69 tattooed on his _face_.

…Not one that would fly in the Gotei, anyway.

Nanao looked like she trusted him, but some of her people just inside the gate seemed to feel differently, from how watchful they were being.

"Uh, there _is_ a test," 69 was saying. "Any more than that is restricted information, but I can tell you there's a test, and it's a… it's a significant test. And you should tell people about that." He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "I need to get going to check on the rest. Tenth will be interesting…"

Nanao nodded. "Yes. Though I expect Tenth would be easier if we even had some idea why they're holding Matsumoto…?"

"No, sorry," 69 said — a bit shiftily, Lisa thought. "Look, I really need to finish the circuit so I can get to Ninth — do you mind if I cut out? I'll see you at the meeting tonight."

"Of course," Nanao said, but when 69 had shunpo'd away she sighed and adjusted her glasses.

Lisa thought it over, and jumped down off the roof she was on, landing a respectful two meters away. "Hey."

One of the unseated officers just inside the gate shrieked.

Nanao stared at her. "L— Lisa? What—?" She adjusted her glasses again. "You— Of course. The Visored were captured, too. And — someone yoked you?"

"Yes and yes," Lisa sighed. "Me and Hiyori and Mashiro. You're pretty well-informed."

"I try," Nanao said. "Can I… ask if you're all right?"

Lisa laughed. "Oh, I'm just great."

…Nanao didn't look like she bought it. "Would you like to come in, have some tea, and compare notes?"

"I'd rather have some of the captain's sake but I guess it's a bit early for that. Sure."

Lisa did end up having some of the captain's sake. Nanao didn't, because she needed to keep a clear head and didn't drink much.

"You might want to take it up," Lisa suggested.

"…I'll take that under advisement."

 **Hitsugaya Tōshirō**

Tōshirō woke up feeling possibly even more tired than when he fell asleep — he guessed that was what you got when you slept on sekkiseki. At least he was able to put two thoughts together now.

He wasn't sure how long he'd slept. He wasn't sure how long he'd been awake before that, apart from brief blackouts on the battlefield after Aizen left and during the… incident with Antenor. He was sure that between the fighting and the sekkiseki, his reiatsu was down a lot, and, well…

His body didn't know he wasn't a child, and the lower his power got, the more insistent it got about things like sleep. There'd been a few incidents during bankai training he was very grateful no one else had witnessed. He should probably plan on spending most of his free time sleeping, or he was going to make a fool of himself from lack of it.

…Not that there was anything else to do in the sekkiseki cell anyway.

…Not that anything else that seemed likely to happen was preferable to sleeping.

Antenor was likely to come back again, after he'd been lectured in how not to kill shinigami. The experience had been very degrading and _extremely_ painful, but he'd survived it. He could survive it again. He hadn't pulled off being _indifferent_ to it, but he could move past it.

The… proving ground was something else.

It was going to be a problem. It was already a problem, and he'd barely even been touched. The… _recruits_ had mostly avoided Tōshirō's cell. One had even started to come in, then commented that he looked even younger than he usually did and left. Instead, Tōshirō had just had to lie there, _listening_. But then, towards the end, a man had come in and — and _spanked_ him.

"Damn arrogant jumped-up Rukon brat, acting like you have any right to any authority here, you _child_ —"

And that had given people ideas, apparently, because he'd barely left when another one came in. "Not so strong now, are you, captain, without your fancy kidō sword or your stupid tricks—"

Tōshirō had managed to place that one before he put the cane down and left — an unseated officer from Eleventh he'd had to warn off harassing Tenth's recruits, one time. He'd _thought_ he'd intimidated some respect into the oaf, but it seemed the respect hadn't outlived the intimidation.

Then there had been someone from Ninth. He'd just jeered, he hadn't touched. Yet.

Then they'd run out of time for the day, and Tōshirō had been dragged back to his sekkiseki cell with nothing but bruised wrists and ankles and badly bruised buttocks. Inoue had practically _brightened up_ when she saw the condition he was in. After healing he'd fallen asleep almost immediately.

Which brought him to where he was now — slumped against sekkiseki that leached out his strength as quickly as it could return, with absolutely nothing he could do about anything.

No. There _had_ to be something he could do. He refused to accept that there was _nothing_ he could do.

Besides just repeat _please no one from Tenth_ , _please no one from Tenth_ over and over in his head.

The door opened. He failed to suppress a flinch back against the cell wall.

It wasn't Antenor, it wasn't even the clone-arrancar — it was the little green-haired arrancar girl who'd been with the Primera and grabbed him by the hair just after they'd arrived in the castle. Tōshirō had no idea why she was at all interested in him.

(It had better not be because they both looked like children.)

(It was almost certainly because they both looked like children.)

"Hello, Shirō-chan," she said with a sharp smile.

He didn't say anything, just glared at her.

"Fight me," she said, and jumped on him. _Shit_.

She didn't have any weapons out, and she obviously didn't have much training or even experience in unarmed combat. He managed to roll over and throw her off, dodge the next several attacks, and land some blows that probably stung. But she also didn't have depleted spiritual energy from sekkiseki and… everything else, so she was stronger, and faster, and tougher, and still going strong when he was gasping for air and trembling and _helpless_. And she was considerably less affected by being slammed into stone walls and floor.

"That wasn't that impressive," she said when she had him pinned.

"I know it wasn't very impressive, I don't have any damn energy," he growled into the floor.

"Oh. Right." She leaned her elbow on the back of his head, pressing his face harder against the floor. "I'll come back later then." She was gone before he could pull himself off the floor.

Back later? When he'd be even weaker? What the hell was the point in that?

He was so tired.

He fell asleep again before they came to take him to the proving ground.

 **Ayasegawa Yumichika**

Yumichika had to admit he wasn't sure _why_ the captains' meeting hall had no chairs in the first place, but it still seemed sort of… tacky for Baraggan to have his fraccion assemble that ridiculous throne in there. Not that Yumichika allowed any hint of this to cross his face, of course. He knelt serenely beside the throne with Kira and Ōmaeda, while the fraccion stood proudly around it. No one else was there yet.

He had to admit Kira was coping with the situation a lot better than he would have predicted. He was gloomy, gloomier than usual even, and maybe somewhat emotionally shut down, but not panicking or tearing himself up with shame. He did what was required of him quietly and without fuss, and while that didn't _endear_ him to the fraccion it didn't get them more worked up, either. (Chuhlhourne had claimed Kira had a more beautiful attitude than Yumichika, which was just _blatantly_ false.) And in the morning he'd just cleaned up, treated his most serious and/or troublesome injuries, and gone to work.

On the other hand, Yumichika suspected Ōmaeda was still in shock from losing most of his family. He wasn't really properly reacting to things. When he got past it, there was probably going to be an explosion.

Tōsen arrived, with Hisagi and Hinamori in tow. They both looked exhausted, but Yumichika refused to feel sorry for them. They didn't have to spread their legs for arrancar or bear this damned burning _yoke_ , so what if they had to listen to Tōsen going on about his grand _visions_ for Seireitei and pretend they agreed.

Well, maybe he felt a _little_ sorry for them.

The Tercera arrived with the three female Visored, but without her fraccion. The black-haired one was moving a bit stiffly and showed a few bites, but the other two looked untouched. The green-haired one glared sullenly at Tōsen; the little blond one glared at everyone.

"Cut it out, both of you," the black-haired one hissed. "We're here to get our zanpakutō back, you can shut up for however long that takes."

The blond one switched to glaring at the floor. The green-haired one took a breath to retort, but squeaked and subsided when the Tercera dropped a hand to the yoke. All three of the Visored knelt.

"About time you showed up," Baraggan grunted. The Tercera didn't dignify this with a response.

"Harribel," Tōsen said. "Upon consideration, I have decided that Yadōmaru, Sarugaki, and Kuna will not be given specific division assignments, but classified as shikai assets and dispatched on a mission-by-mission basis. I will inform the division leadership of this."

"As you wish, Tōsen-sama."

Tōsen seemed to study Baraggan's three slaves for a minute, though Yumichika wasn't sure how exactly. "Hisagi. Have they been able to perform their duties satisfactorily?"

"So far, yes, Tōsen-sama," Hisagi said carefully. "I believe since Ayasegawa has no assigned division at present, he has been assisting at Second."

"That is acceptable," Tōsen said.

"As to whether their… condition will cause problems over a longer period of time, Kotetsu-fukutaichō might be a better person to ask."

Hinamori cleared her throat anxiously. "When you have a moment, Tōsen-sama, Kotetsu-fukutaichō also had some medical concerns about the effects of the yoke on those with weaker spiritual power." Tōsen didn't reply, and she didn't press.

Grimmjow swaggered into the room alone. "Harribel. Baraggan. Tōsen… sama. I passed Cirucci and Dordoni on the way up, but Nnoitra may be a while and fuck knows where Szayelaporro's slithered off to."

"You were told to bring your pet for inspection, and approval if an active shinigami," Tōsen said.

"Still don't have one. Would it be okay if I got an active shinigami who's also a noble? You want those yoked, right?"

Tōsen considered this, then nodded. "Yes, that is probably acceptable. But I still want to approve any seated officer you take."

"I'll be sure to do that." And Grimmjow blew back out, waving casually over his shoulder. Yumichika wondered if he had someone in mind.

"Wonder what's keeping Nnoitra," Ggio muttered.

Chuhlhourne sniffed. "He probably accidentally killed his pet and now can't figure out why it isn't obeying him."

Not long after Grimmjow's brief visit, a female arrancar with purple hair (stronger than the fraccion, much much weaker than the Espada present) appeared in the doorway and bowed deeply. "Tōsen-sama, Segunda, Tercera." She snapped her fingers, and she was joined by a haggard-looking young man in the bottom half of a shihakushō. His chest was raked with claw (or nail) marks, and blood was oozing from the yoke. "My new pet, if you give your approval, Tōsen-sama."

Hinamori had clapped both hands over her mouth. Maybe she recognized the boy? Because honestly, Ōmaeda and Kira both looked worse, so his appearance shouldn't be _that_ much of a shock.

"Cirucci," Tōsen said. "Who is the pet?"

Cirucci snapped her fingers again, and the man spoke. "Uh, Utsunomiya Tomomoto, s-sixteenth seat of Fifth Division." Hinamori did know him, then.

"Fifth Division surrendered," Tōsen said.

"Yes, Tōsen-sama, but I found him trying to defend a noble house, and he stated that he belonged there."

Hisagi winced. "Oops," Yumichika muttered to Kira, who nodded.

"They're my _family_ ," blurted the boy. "I couldn't just abandon them — you—"

"Shut up and kneel," said Cirucci. He shut up and knelt.

"Approved," Tōsen said to Cirucci. "But he is expected to perform his division duties. And get him a loyal uniform."

"Understood, Tōsen-sama. I did use my other allotted yoke, but I had to take it off — the girl turned out to be a juvenile and anyway her reaction to the yoke kept getting worse."

Tōsen frowned. "You were told not to take juveniles."

"I mistook her for an adult — she was _married_."

Tōsen's frown deepened. "Nobles are perverse. Is the child now in your custody, Hinamori-fukutaichō?"

Hinamori tore her eyes away from her unfortunate sixteenth seat. "Sh-she's still at the Fourth, Tōsen-sama. She was seriously injured by the yoke."

"Note that the marriage was invalid, as the bride was a child."

"…Hai, Tōsen-sama."

"It's unlikely to be an issue, we killed all the other nobles in that house," Cirucci said.

Tōsen nodded slowly. "I will consider providing a new yoke for you to apply more appropriately."

"Thank you, Tōsen-sama."

The next arrancar all but pranced into the room, followed by a yoked elderly man in civilian clothes. The yoke wasn't fully visible, but what Yumichika could see was smeared with blood and looked burned.

"Why the hell do you want to fuck _that_?" Cirucci demanded.

"I don't," said the new arrancar. "I just need a servant. None of the ladies I've seen so far seem like much fun, and judging from how Rokurō here has reacted they would probably be even less fun with the yoke on."

The man looked… like a properly blank-faced noble retainer. But Yumichika _thought_ he seemed more disturbed by the condition of the yoked shinigami than distressed by his own predicament. Well, going from a servant to a servant wasn't so bad. Apart from the yoke.

Tōsen approved the servant without any objection. Well, he probably did object to it less than the whole sex toy thing.

Grimmjow swaggered back into the room. "On second thought, I'll stay for the rest of the meeting."

Tōsen looked like he was getting a headache.

"All right, Nnoitra definitely fucked up somehow," Findorr murmured.

The Quinta Espada and his fraccion arrived shortly thereafter. The fraccion was carrying an unconscious girl over each shoulder, one wrapped in a sheet and the other in the remains of a silk kimono. Nnoitra was carrying another, completely naked girl, and fondling her. Her eyes were open but not tracking, and the yoke was inert enough she wasn't fighting it.

Hinamori made a horrified noise. "That's — those—"

Yumichika closed his eyes for a moment. Outrage accomplished nothing. Gathering information might. Hinamori, the green-haired Visored, the sixteenth seat, and — oddly — Ōmaeda were openly distressed. Kira and the black-haired Visored were keeping things pinned down a bit better. Hisagi and the retainer were mostly blank-faced.

"You _sick fuck_!" the blond Visored snarled. Yumichika noted that the Tercera did not reprimand her.

Among the arrancar, the Tercera was unreadable, and Cirucci and Dordoni both looked like they smelled something bad. Baraggan's fraccion were mostly looking to Baraggan for cues, and Baraggan looked mildly annoyed. Grimmjow was grinning, looking back and forth between Nnoitra and… Tōsen.

Tōsen looked… ominous.

"Nnoitra," Tōsen said. "This is a serious meeting and not a suitable venue for… that."

"I'm bringing my pets for inspection!" Nnoitra said. "That's what you said to do! These are nobles, not shinigami, so I don't need your approval. If that's all, I'll—"

"How old are they!" Hinamori burst out. She went white as everyone looked at her, but managed to continue, "Th-they might not — if— Tōsen-sama, I'm sorry, but if they're too young — I think—"

"Yes," Tōsen said. "How old are they?"

"The fuck should I know?" Nnoitra said. He pinched the girl he was holding. "They don't seem too young to me."

Age was such a… _slippery_ thing, in Seireitei. Hitsugaya was past fifty, but looked preadolescent, but had adult responsibilities, but had the emotional malleability of a very _young_ adult, and was probably still (slowly) maturing and (even more slowly) growing. Yachiru was probably older, definitely looked younger, usually acted the age she looked, except when she seemed to really be playing everyone around her, and no one was quite sure if she was growing at all. (He hoped Yachiru was all right.) Yumichika wouldn't venture a guess about the girls over the fraccion's shoulder, but he'd guess the one Nnoitra was holding was old enough to not be a child, at least.

"They are too young," Tōsen said. "Release them and remove the yokes."

And it looked like actual age was irrelevant compared to Tōsen's offended sensibilities.

Nnoitra argued. Tōsen would not be moved. Grimmjow laughed. Tōsen threw Grimmjow out. Nnoitra interpreted this as showing sympathy to his position and argued some more. Baraggan threatened to destroy Nnoitra himself if he didn't stop wasting everyone's time. Tōsen told Baraggan he was not to kill other Espada without Aizen's permission. Nnoitra yielded with poor grace, and took the yokes off.

Tōsen ordered Baraggan to allow Kira to assist Hinamori in trying to keep the girls alive long enough for Fourth Division to arrive. Tōsen acknowledged that the physical effects of the yokes on individuals with weaker spiritual power bore further investigation.

"Aren't you going to give me replacement yokes so I can get some new pets?" Nnoitra complained, as the Fourth Division team carried his old pets away.

"You still have one," Tōsen said flatly.

"Yeah, but I'm saving that for when someone brings in that bitch Nelliel."

The Tercera's eyes narrowed dangerously. Nnoitra didn't seem to notice.

After all that, Ulquiorra's arrival with a bunch of long thin cases was almost, but not quite, an anticlimax. The cases were spiritually insulated somehow, but Yumichika could still feel Ruri'iro Kujaku as soon as he was brought into the room.

Tōsen didn't have any commentary on the distribution of the zanpakutō to the yoked shinigami — and his own lieutenants. The Visored were all relieved to get their swords back, but not enough to make the blond one stop scowling. Unless her face had frozen that way? Expected reactions from Ōmaeda, Kira, and sixteenth seat. Hinamori clutched Tobiume to her, Hisagi held Kazeshini at arm's length.

Ruri'iro Kujaku's only comment was a forceful general _Ugly!_ and the impression of sulking. Yumichika couldn't blame him.

There was still one sword left over. Kurotsuchi Nemu's, Yumichika guessed. Ulquiorra took it with him when he left.

"Oh, yes!" Chuhlhourne said. "Your Majesty, there's a _secret_ about this sword!"

 _Shit._


	5. Day Two: Part Two

**Ishida Uryū**

Intellectually, Uryū figured out fairly quickly that it was possible to breathe the… liquid he was submerged in. His subconscious was still having trouble with it. Every time he woke up, some part of him would not be persuaded he wasn't drowning, and he'd choke and try futilely to hold his breath and end up passing out again in only a minute or so. It was maddening, because he knew it was unnecessary. What was necessary was thinking of a way to get _out_ of this, and _fix_ things.

By 'this', of course, he didn't mean the… pod thing, but the situation in general and his imprisonment by Szayelaporro in particular. The few hours of captivity before the Octava had put him 'in storage' so he could attend to his responsibilities had been… unpleasant. Uryū had fought, persistently, but Szayelaporro had just laughed and staked his hands to the table and carried on… _experimenting_ , if you could call it that. Real scientists would not approve. Some of it could probably be described as _exploratory surgery_ , in the most general sense. The Espada had just… glued all the incisions shut before tossing him in the pod. Everything seemed to be working when he was awake enough to check, even his hands, but the marks were still there and everything was painful.

None of it was as unpleasant as the realization that Aizen had won, and that meant Karakura Town was gone.

Finally, he woke up and breathed air, in between coughing out the goo — the coughing wasn't doing the incision on his torso any good. He wasn't in Hueco Mundo — Soul Society, from the reishi levels. He was somewhere mostly dark, lying on a tile floor, and was surrounded by blurs.

He _hated_ losing his glasses.

All right, going by reiatsu, the blurs were shinigami, not particularly strong ones. Except for— "Sado!"

The Sado-blur moved, probably making some sort of gesture in response, but of course Uryū couldn't make it out.

"Oh," said one of the shinigami-blurs. "It's you."

"Who?" said another shinigami-blur.

"Kurosaki Ichigo's Quincy associate. Kurotsuchi-taichō was monitoring him."

He could do without being referred to as _Kurosaki's Quincy associate_ , but more importantly — Twelfth Division. They were in Twelfth Division. "Why are we in Twelfth Division?" Uryū demanded. "Is Kurotsuchi here?"

"No," said the most talkative shinigami-blur. "He's still in Hueco Mundo, in… some condition."

Well, that was something. Probably not much, though. Uryū tried reflexively to push his glasses up his face (making his hand hurt) and nearly poked himself in the eye. "I don't suppose this was a rescue?"

"Ha. No." The blur moved around. "…I think we'll need to get someone from Fourth Division over. For now, take him to the Quincy cell."

They still had a Quincy cell? Uryū was torn between _Naturally_ and _How dare they_.

"What about the other one?"

The talkative blur groaned. "Oh, him too, I guess. Might as well."

Speaking of might as well— "Wait!" Uryū said. He indicated the pod he'd just been… decanted from. "Are my glasses in there somewhere?"

"…Doesn't look like it."

Damn.

Uryū managed to walk to the Quincy cell on his own two feet, with a little… incidental staggering. His legs weren't badly hurt. Everything in his torso felt bruised, but his legs worked. Sado, on the other hand, had to be carried. Unfortunately Uryū couldn't see him to assess his condition more than 'somewhat depleted reiatsu'.

He _really wanted his glasses_.

Maybe he could learn to form reishi corrective lenses. That would eliminate the problem.

The Quincy cell turned out to be one room subdivided with metal grilles. Everything in it was made of… Uryū wasn't sure what it was made of, it wasn't sekkiseki but he wasn't getting any reishi particles off it, either.

"If you two don't cause any trouble, we'll leave the inner gates open," said the lead blur. "And we'll get someone from Fourth."

Using the grilles as a guide, Uryū made his way over to Sado. Up close, he could actually see his condition. "You look like you've been run over by a stampede of wild horses."

"More of a… very large arrancar," Sado said after a moment. "You look…"

Uryū looked like he'd had a Y-incision glued back together, was how he looked. "Yes."

One corner of the cell had a pull-chain shower and a drain, which had worrying implications about just how long Quincy had been held for experimentation in the past, but was useful to rinse off the last of the goo from the 'storage' pod. Uryū offered to help Sado over as well, but Sado refused. He didn't actually say he was refusing because he didn't think Uryū was up to the labor, so Uryū couldn't argue with him.

Probably not more than an hour later, a familiar-feeling shinigami-blur burst in. "Ishida-san! Sado-san!"

It took a moment to remember, but— "Hanatarō," Uryū said. "Can you tell us what's going on?"

"Ichigo?" Sado asked. "Inoue?"

"Abarai and Kuchiki?" Uryū added.

The blur wilted. "I don't know a lot," Hanatarō said. "But if you sit down and let me heal you I'll tell you what I can."

 **Abarai Renji**

Renji woke up gasping, under the golden glow of Orihime's healing. The first few breaths were hard, but his throat opened up to normal and after that he was okay.

Well. His neck was okay. The rest of him still felt like it had before he'd been strangled with a whip, which wasn't okay unless you defined it as 'not dying'.

(Ordinarily Renji wouldn't dream of deliberately goading one of his own men into a violent outburst using his hard-won personal understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, but the nineteenth seat wasn't really one of his men anymore, was he. Besides, no one in the process of swearing allegiance to Aizen got to call him a faithless Rukongai dog. He hoped the asshole got punished for almost killing a _useful_ prisoner.)

(He'd been 99% sure that if the goading resulted in serious injury they'd just heal him, and that 1% didn't really worry him, either.)

"Abarai-kun?" Orihime asked anxiously.

Renji opened his eyes all the way quickly, briefly afraid they'd brought her _into the proving ground_ — she didn't need to see that. (No one needed to see that.) But no, it looked like… just some back hallway somewhere. Ulquiorra was looming over Orihime's shoulder. "Inoue-san," he said. "Thanks for the save."

"I'm sorry — they said — just the neck—"

"I'll probably see you again later," Renji said. "Whenever the… session is over."

"The… session," Orihime echoed faintly. "A few more hours, they said."

Renji felt sorry for whoever'd had to explain the whole proving ground setup to her. (Unless it had been Ulquiorra, then he felt sorry for Orihime. Sorrier.) Yesterday (he thought yesterday) she'd been numb with horror by the time she got to him, barely speaking at all. She looked… well, no, he couldn't really say she looked better now. "Did they at least save someone from Fourth Division for you to swap out with occasionally?"

She shook her head. "Oh, no. I think Fourth Division is needed to do… Fourth Division things? Because most of the Gotei 13 is still supposed to be functioning… as normally as possible, and they don't want Kotetsu-fukutaichō or anyone else finding out about… all this."

"Quiet, woman," Ulquiorra said sharply, dragging her away, barely letting her get her feet under her. "Don't exceed orders."

"Thanks, Inoue-san!" Renji called after them, hoping it wouldn't get her in more trouble. Because apparently they weren't supposed to know that the parts of the Gotei 13 not lining up to abuse their former commanders were alive and just… trying their best to do their duty in horrible circumstances. So every member of Sixth he _didn't_ see, he could imagine was okay.

(He couldn't imagine it about Rukia, though, unseated officer or not. He'd seen the Espada who dragged her away, and the horror on her face when it did.)

 **Sado Yasutora**

Hanatarō's explanations were delayed by a frankly ridiculous argument about who was more injured. Ishida had been _cut open_. A little trampling couldn't compare with that.

But, "Crush injuries can be very serious, Sado-san," Hanatarō said, eyes wide. "I need to at least check thoroughly." And then he claimed to have found internal injuries and spent at least an hour tending them.

Ishida looked — well, not smug, but it was a very "I told you so" look. And he tried to adjust his missing glasses again.

Of course after that Hanatarō had to check Ishida for internal injuries, and made a number of horrified faces over the incision. "I hate dealing with Twelfth Division," he whispered finally.

"I don't like them either," Ishida said, "but in strict fairness, this wasn't them."

Sado hadn't seen what Szayelaporro had been doing to Ishida — the arrancar had left him lying helpless in the hall — but he'd heard the shouts turning into strangled screams. Whatever it was, it had been bad.

"I think he's left something clamped onto your liver," Hanatarō said eventually.

Ishida tried to sit up, expression outraged. "He _what_?"

Hanatarō easily guided him back down to the cot. "Careful! But, um, I'm not sure… and if it's really there, I'd have to cut you open again to get it out…"

"And that might get you in trouble," Ishida said, frowning. "Better leave it."

"I could, um, tell Third Seat Akon about it?" Hanatarō said. "He could at least monitor to see if there are any, um, complications…"

"I'm not sure I want Twelfth monitoring me for anything," Ishida said testily. "Just… leave it. Did you say you knew something about Kurosaki and the others?"

Hanatarō gave him a look which was probably supposed to convey his _full awareness_ that Ishida was just trying to change the subject, even if he was going with it, but Sado was pretty sure Ishida wouldn't be able to appreciate the expression unless it was right in his face. "They were saying Ichigo lost all his powers, which I think implies he's alive. I saw Rukia-san and Abarai-fukutaichō being carried off by arrancar, and someone said they didn't need to keep any Fourth Division people in the castle because Inoue-san would be there, so…"

"…Castle?" Ishida said.

"Oh, I guess you haven't seen it!" Hanatarō said. "It's, uh… Aizen-sama's new castle. Well, if you get a chance to look outside, um… It's on Sōkyoku Hill. You really can't miss it."

"Charming," Ishida muttered.

Hanatarō had brought patient robes from Fourth, which was good. Sado's clothing was torn up and bloody; Ishida's was mostly missing. Although he looked at least half-dressed with all the bandages even before he shrugged the robe on.

"…What are they going to do with us?" Sado asked.

Hanatarō slumped. "That… would probably be a question for Third Seat Akon, too. I know the Espada Szayelaporro will be in charge of the… research parts of Twelfth, that's all anyone here was talking about, but you… I'm sorry. I don't know." He lowered his voice. "Actually the rumor I heard coming in is that what Szayelaporro has to do in Hueco Mundo is try to… collect all of the… liquid that Kurotsuchi-taichō turned into. He sent Kurotsuchi-fukutaichō back to get a, um… a… wet-dry vacuum cleaner. To catch him. And sieving equipment, to get the sand out…"

Ishida started laughing and couldn't seem to stop even though it exacerbated his injuries (alarmingly), and then couldn't seem to stop crying (more alarmingly), and finally fell asleep.

"He seems, um…" Hanatarō said.

"Szayelaporro is…" Sado searched for words, and couldn't find them. "It's bad."

"Kurotsuchi," Ishida mumbled into the cot — apparently he wasn't asleep after all. "Wet-dry vacuum cleaner. It may not be much consolation, but I intend to _treasure_ it."

 **Hinamori Momo**

Kuchiki Yorimi, Kuchiki Atsuko, and one more. Ōmaeda had remembered the names of the two Kuchiki girls, but he couldn't place the third one, apart from 'not from an important family'. Sixteenth Seat Utsunomiya thought her family name was Hosokawa; Ōmaeda had agreed that was plausible, since they were an adjunct family to the Kuchiki. Hinamori had, very unfairly, wanted to shake both of them. It wasn't as if there was any other way they could have helped.

It was up to Fourth Division now. Isane had seemed optimistic when the emergency team left.

Hinamori wished she could be there. Or in the side ward with the other children left at Fourth, even if it meant dealing with all Rurichiyo's questions. Or back at Fifth, even if they were all crying again — _especially_ if they were all crying again, the Third Seat wasn't trained to deal with that. Or at the lockup at Second, even if Fēng Xun bit her again.

Or back in the yoke meeting, or on the battlefield, or _anywhere other than Aizen's throne room_.

She'd preferred it before they'd been told to rise, because then it was easier to keep her eyes on the floor.

He looked so _strange_. He _felt_ so strange. Aizen-taichō had always seemed warm and comforting, but the… the being standing over them seemed burning hot and burning cold. She wasn't sure which. Maybe both.

She should probably be paying less attention to what Aizen felt like and more to what Tōsen was saying.

"…It appears that individuals of lesser spiritual power may be seriously injured by the yoke," Tōsen said. "It may be prudent to redesign it."

"Hmm, yes," Aizen agreed. "Give Hinamori-kun the design materials. Hinamori-kun, please work on identifying the source of the problem and creating a new version with the same functionality, without serious injuries."

 _Her_? But she wasn't— "H-hai, Aizen-sama," she stammered. "I-if, can I ask — how secret is the design? C-could I request assistance from others?" Nanao could—

"…No, I would prefer you not show the designs to anyone not a sworn shinigami or properly yoked."

"Hai, Aizen-sama." That… would make things harder. Isane at least would have been better able to pinpoint what was causing the injuries to begin with—

"If you particularly need someone's assistance, Hinamori-kun, there are a number of arrancar who would be willing to yoke them."

"No, thank you, Aizen-sama!" she said hastily. She couldn't throw anyone into _that_. "I'll… I can do it." Maybe she would ask Kira.

"Very good, Hinamori-kun." Aizen turned back to Tōsen. "I'm generally pleased with the progress in Seireitei. I have the first forty sworn loyal shinigami for you to allocate to the divisions. All of these were already shinigami, so should not require additional training."

Hinamori happened to be looking at Hisagi, and so caught the second for which he looked like he was about to throw up, before schooling his face to flat professionalism. What was that about?

Rather than look back at Aizen's feet, she inspected the rows of white-coated shinigami who dutifully trooped into the throne room, zanpakutō at their sides. Some of them looked a little overwhelmed by the ambient spiritual pressure, for which she couldn't blame them, even though Aizen was clearly suppressing it a lot. She spotted five, six… seven Fifth Division shinigami who'd gone up the hill, but none of the seated officers.

None of them would meet her eyes.

"Tōsen is in command of the Seireitei," Aizen said to the sworn shinigami. "He will be counting on you to help enforce the new order. Be worthy of his trust. And finally, you are not to reveal any information about the training of sworn shinigami to anyone not fully aware."

That was kind of odd. Wasn't it?

Hisagi didn't seem to think it was odd. But he wasn't happy with the sworn shinigami in general. Even more than she would have expected.

By the time they made it back down to First Division, Hinamori was certain that Hisagi knew something he wasn't telling her about the sworn shinigami.

Should she ask him?

He would tell her if it was something she needed to know, wouldn't he?

Tōsen had the sworn shinigami — a phrase which it was already getting annoying to repeat — stay out in First Division's practice yard, with actual First Division shinigami eying them from the buildings. He led Hisagi and Hinamori back into the captains' meeting hall. Everyone else was already there, standing in a clump, having an energetic conversation that cut off abruptly when they entered — when Tōsen entered — and the vice-captains and third seats fell into something resembling orderly lines.

"Hisagi tells me most of the divisions are in good order," Tōsen said. "This is good. We will resume normal operations within the next few days."

No one dared object to that openly, but from the way people glanced at the few zanpakutō in the room, Hinamori guessed they wanted to say the lack of shikai was likely to be a problem. But the sworn shinigami would help with that, hopefully…

"The first of those who have willingly sworn allegiance to Aizen-sama have returned," Tōsen announced, which got everyone's complete attention. "Those belonging to an extant division will return there. The others will be divided up evenly."

"So the unaffiliated ones are even, or the… whitecoats overall are even?" Hisagi said. "I don't know what the spread on those forty is, but how many went from various divisions was very uneven."

"…As evenly as possible," Tōsen amended. "Each division is to have at least three shikai available."

Akon raised his hand. "Tōsen-sama, my understanding from Kurotsuchi-fukutaichō — before she had to leave again — is that Twelfth Division is to be reduced to its scientific and research functions, when, um, Szayelaporro-sama takes over. Accordingly, our non-research officers should be reassigned to other divisions."

"Szayelaporro," Tōsen said after a pause. "Yes. That reallocation is approved."

So, add 'Szayelaporro' to the list of Espada Tōsen did not care for and/or respect, along with Nnoitra and Grimmjow.

"We should have gotten a list of names earlier," Hisagi muttered under his breath. "Should I… call in the whitecoats by division?" Tōsen made a gesture that Hinamori wouldn't have known how to interpret, but Hisagi just nodded and stepped out, and she heard, "Sworn shinigami from First Division please enter!"

There was one. _One_. Third Seat Okikiba looked… concerned. "We had more than—" he started, but Hisagi cut him off and called for Second Division.

There were three from Second Division, or rather Onmitsukidō. (Ōmaeda didn't look overjoyed that they were summarily assigned to him, and they might not either — it was hard to tell.) Another three from Third, then none from Fourth, and her seven from Fifth. Who still wouldn't meet her eyes. Four from Sixth, one each from Seventh and Eighth — Eighth was their Third Seat, whose name she really ought to be able to remember but couldn't. (He never looked away from his zanpakutō for long, but gave Nanao a look that had her frowning deeply.) Eight from Ninth, one from Tenth, one from Twelfth who probably wouldn't be going back to Twelfth, and none from Thirteenth.

The last ten were from Eleventh, and didn't seem quite as… subdued as most of the others.

This was going to be a headache to sort out.

 **Kurosaki Ichigo**

Nothing mattered anymore.

Or, no — it didn't matter anymore what happened to Ichigo.

 _"I thought you might be bored all alone in this cell, Urahara, so I brought something to show you. I woke him up specially."_

It didn't matter that his powers were gone, because he didn't deserve them if he couldn't save anyone. He couldn't stand the thought of facing Zangetsu in failure anyway. His Hollow would devour him whole, and he'd have every right to, but then he might hurt other people, so it was just as well he was gone. Ichigo had no right to feel bad.

 _"So easy to wind him up and make him go — I'm curious, do you feel bad about doing this to him? Because_ you know _the injuries aren't what broke him."_

It didn't matter that he was a slave to the yoke around his neck. He deserved it. It didn't matter that sometimes it hurt so much he thought he would die. He deserved that, too.

 _"He's not as entertaining as he used to be, is he. But some of the arrancar seem to find a use for him."_

Grimmjow showed up in his cell and challenged him to a fight, offered to take it easy on him until he got his powers back. But there was no point. He did resist, feebly, when Grimmjow pinned him down and tore his clothes off and — and — and—

 _"Do you remember Grimmjow, Hirako-taichō? You have him to thank for Kurosaki's current inability to walk."_

But it didn't matter, if Grimmjow fucked him. He was a slave, and god knew he was useless for anything else.

 _"Do_ you _regret doing this to him, Hirako-taichō?"_

He'd failed.

Everyone in Karakura was dead. Worse than dead.

 _"I have a patient for you to assess, Dr. Kurosaki. I patched over the shock from the power loss, all the internal injuries have been healed, but he's still unresponsive."_

 _His sisters were dead._

That was the only thing that mattered.

 **Kotetsu Isane**

Isane didn't know every single Eleventh Division member by sight, or even all the ones who harassed Fourth Division members (which wasn't _really_ all of them, it just felt like it), but she recognized the worst offenders.

The 'sworn shinigami' previously from Eleventh Division? All but one among that set of worst offenders. Fortunately Tōsen had agreed Fourth didn't have as urgent a requirement for shikai, or she'd have had to bring some of them _back_ with her. As it was, the meeting (vice-captains' meeting? organizational meeting? leadership meeting?) had been over for not quite ninety minutes when the first ex-Eleventh whitecoat swaggered into Fourth looking for trouble.

"Sure, you brushed me off before, but I'm _First_ Division now," he was saying to the beleaguered desk officer when Isane hurried in. "The top _loyal_ officer there. So, you losers had better do what I say now."

"If you have any injuries, we can attend to that," Isane said. "If you have maintenance requests, submit them to Third Seat Okikiba and they will be addressed according to standard procedures."

"I'm a _sworn shinigami_ —"

"Any maintenance requests from Tōsen-sama are of course given top priority," Isane said firmly. He hadn't made any, as far as she knew — he seemed to prefer delegating clean-up tasks to arrancar — but it was still true. "But they have to go through proper channels."

He tried to loom over her, and for once Isane appreciated her height, because he failed miserably and just loomed… at her. He laid a hand ostentatiously on the hilt of his zanpakutō. "I… have my weapon."

To push back or not to push back? If it came down to it, would Tōsen support a whitecoat pushing people around, or come down hard on an ex-Eleventh shinigami pushing people around? He'd never liked Eleventh Division much, but he let them have the sworn shinigami status, and predicting what Tōsen would do was a fool's game these days… "What do you _want_?"

"I want—"

Hinamori walked in the front doors, followed by Gantenbainne again. "Oh, Isane, you're — what's going on?"

There was a long, awkward silence. The whitecoat looked shiftily from Isane to Hinamori to Gantenbainne, then back to Isane. "…I was just leaving."

Isane, Hinamori, the desk officer, and Gantenbainne watched him sidle out. His walk changed to a swagger before the door even closed behind him.

"What was that about?" Hinamori asked.

"He was just… throwing his weight around." Isane bit her lip. "I don't want to _complain_ to Tōsen-sama. Not unless it gets… much more serious."

"I see," Hinamori said. "Well — if you're sure. Let me know if you want me to help."

"I will," Isane said, and knew she was lying. Hinamori was spread thin already. "If you're here to check on the… patients freed from the yoke, they're doing well. The initial crisis was the worst."

"I'm so glad," Hinamori said. "Yes, I should talk to them, and the other children — I should be able to take them off your hands soon."

"Oh good," Isane said before she could stop herself. "Um — I mean — it's just that we're not set up for such a large number of non-injured children at one time — or even injured children really — um — so where are you going to put them? Not First?"

Hinamori stifled a giggle. "That was discussed, actually! But Tōsen decided that would give them an inflated sense of their own importance. Or it may have had something to do with hearing the crying when he walked past Fifth…"

Isane called a nurse to show Hinamori to the patients, and the other children. Gantenbainne paused before following them, though.

"I think you should talk to Tōsen-sama, Kotetsu-fukutaichō," he said. "I can't speak for shinigami, but Hollows would have to have it made clear to them that they can't prey on the weak or someone stronger will punish them. Even when the weak will help them when they need it most."

 **Kuchiki Rukia**

"So, Kuchiki, was it as good as you imagined?"

No one named Kuchiki here. Just a girl from Inuzuri, where sometimes bad things happened to girls, and they got up and went on anyway. Because they were _tough_. They endured. She would endure. She _would_ endure.

(No one named Kuchiki ever imagined anything anyway, it would have been wrong—)

Someone else came into the room. Girls from Inuzuri were aware of their surroundings.

"Hey, Aaroniero, I think you broke her."

(That voice was familiar… from a street in the Living World where someone named Kuchiki had been…)

"What are you doing here, Grimmjow? This is my territory! Go… fight with Luppi!"

(Right. Grimmjow. Blue-haired Espada.)

"Convenient for me, though!" A hand smacked down on the back of her neck, and then _fire_ around her neck, across her shoulders, constricting and sinking teeth into her flesh, her sprit energy, her will—

She screamed and convulsed, and then kept shaking. Was this what a seizure felt like?

When she could hear again, Aaroniero was shouting. "She was _ours_ , Grimmjow, we took her, you can't just walk in and—"

"You didn't get a yoke on her, and I outrank you, so fuck off." Grimmjow grabbed her around the waist and heaved her over his shoulder.

"Do you even _want_ her?"

Grimmjow slapped her ass. "She might put up a decent fight when she's not _broken_ … but that doesn't matter. She's mine now. Too slow, you lose. Go find something else to play with."

The door slammed behind them, cutting off Aaroniero's high-pitched frustrated wail.

All right. This was… different.

She still needed to be a girl from Inuzuri, but away from Aaroniero's _lies_ , she could probably be someone named Kuchiki, too. Rukia lifted a shaking hand to her face and rubbed at her eyes. "What… what did you do to me?"

"Yoked you. I've got a use for you."

"I don't… know what that means."

He laughed, very unhelpfully.

Gingerly, Rukia felt at her neck and shoulders. There was… something there? It felt like slightly raised scars, maybe, but in a complex pattern. It didn't go all the way around her neck, there was a gap at the front, but it went about halfway down her shoulders. If it was called a yoke, it was almost certainly for control. Would it just punish her, or actually compel her? Crap.

She peeled her eyes open, then closed them immediately before she could get dizzy staring down Grimmjow's back at the rapidly moving floor. Where were they? Not Las Noches, she didn't think, but there was still a lot of white stone around.

"Hey! Where's the healing woman?" Grimmjow called to someone.

"Uh, in a suite in Ulquiorra's tower — but she's supposed to be, like, resting or something—"

Grimmjow slapped Rukia's ass again. "This is a friend of hers, I'm sure she won't mind."

"But Ulquiorra—"

The world lurched, almost but not quite like being carried in a flash-step — sonido, she assumed — and she had to close her eyes. A minute later, she was being tossed down on — a couch, it was a couch.

"Hey, woman! Come fix up your friend! Don't touch the yoke."

"Rukia!" Orihime sounded like she'd already been crying. "Sōten Kisshun! Rukia, you — what did you _do_ to her?"

"Nothing, yet." Grimmjow sounded very pleased with himself.

"I'm all right," Rukia whispered, even though it was obviously untrue. She could feel the warm glow of Orihime's healing, though, taking the injuries away, and she opened her eyes all the way. Orihime was crying, and it looked like she had been for some time. "I'm all right."

The shield faded before all of the aches and pains did, and Orihime's face crumpled further. "They're just so tired — I'll try again."

"No, that's fine," Rukia said, and managed to smile. Her face was much less swollen. She was _cleaner_. The rejection had even mended her shredded shitagi, and she shifted to tug it closed. Too bad the rest of her shihakushō was missing. "That's much better. Thank you, Orihime."

Orihime threw her arms around her. "I'm so sorry."

Rukia hugged back, just an uncomplicated painless caring hug, and tried to memorize the feeling because she knew she wasn't out of the fire yet and she didn't think Grimmjow would linger long. "I'm sorry too. It's not your fault. It's not either of our faults. We just have to be strong and keep going." She would not cry. She would _not_ cry.

"All right, shinigami girl, time to go," Grimmjow said. "Come here."

The _thing_ on her shoulders seemed to _heat_ and _tighten_ even as her legs moved without any conscious decision. "Goodbye, Orihime." She gave her friend's hand a last squeeze. "I hope we see each other again."

Orihime cried. Rukia did not blame her at all.

Out in the hall, Rukia was forced to jog to keep up with Grimmjow, and the yoke never stopped its dull burn. "Is it supposed to be punishing me when I'm doing what you say?" she asked.

He waved a hand. "Whatever. Shit, Ulquiorra's back." He picked her up again and launched into another sonido.

When the world stabilized again, she could feel a breeze against her face, it was twilight, and…

Seireitei? Were they on Sōkyoko Hill? That was what the perspective seemed to be. There was smoke rising from—

Sonido again. Again. Again.

They stopped in front of a house, and Grimmjow dropped her on her feet. (Her bare feet.) "So here's the deal, shinigami girl. I want a rematch with Kurosaki, but right now he's in no condition to fight anything and is acting all… wussy."

Considering that Karakura Town had been destroyed, she didn't have any trouble believing Ichigo was… somewhat demoralized. "He was badly hurt?"

"Lost his powers or some shit, I don't know. Bastard should get over it if he tries."

…That was bizarrely likely to be true.

"But from what I saw he's not trying anything, he's just fucking around crying. So he has to be motivated, and Ulquiorra's not letting go of the healing woman even if Aizen's done with her, so that's where you come in."

"You… want me to give Ichigo a pep talk?" She should be so lucky.

Grimmjow laughed. "You can do that if you want, but I think I'll be placing my bets on him shaping up to get you away from my boys. Inside."

She followed him, yoke burning. "Your… boys?"

"My fraccion. Aizen brought 'em all back." He shoved her in the door, and waved at the five arrancar standing in the front hall. "Shawlong Koufang, Edrad Liones, Nakeem Grindina, Yylfordt Granz… and I hope you remember Di Roy Rinker."

Yes. She did.

It looked like he remembered her, too.

Grimmjow shoved her forward. "I need to see what else our glorious leader has for me. Have some fun, boys! But _do not_ break her."

Shit.

Well, at least none of them were wearing the face of someone she admired.

Also, she wasn't seriously wounded anymore, and Grimmjow hadn't actually ordered her not to fight back. Or could the fraccion order her? One way to find out.

As it turned out, the fraccion could only give orders if they actually had a hand on (in?) the yoke, which was definitely close enough for her to get some good hits in, especially when they had to handle her with some care.

Shawlong eventually declared the "fun" over with, probably tired of having to wade in to subdue her — he seemed to be the only one who was any good with the yoke, and he also seemed to feel the whole thing was beneath his dignity. He dragged her to a side room and lashed her wrists to a hook pounded into a support beam.

"Dat bitch broke by dose!" Edrad complained in the hall.

That had been a pretty good shot. Not as good as when she'd planted a heel in Di Roy's hollow hole, though. Their hierro had left her hands and feet scraped up, but the bastards had _felt_ it when she hit them. Ha.

"Grimmjow is going to say you deserve whatever you get dealing with an unarmed shinigami chick…"

"But we couldn't hurt her too bad!"

"We need a better strategy for this…"

For the future. Damn them all.

But at least none of them was wearing a stolen face. She'd endure. And when she saw Ichigo again, she'd make him endure, too.

 **Unohana Retsu**

Unohana had never used a disguise gigai before — one that not only concealed spiritual pressure, but looked nothing at all like the shinigami wearing it. It was quite uncomfortable. According to Yoruichi, you could get a disguise gigai that was more comfortable, but only custom-designed, and Unohana's was one of a bunch of very generic ones. It looked like a very boring middle-aged man. So did Yoruichi's.

"One of us should have taken the provocative foreign tourist lady gigai," Yoruichi said, after they'd checked into the hotel. "We're attracting too much attention like this."

"Hmmm," Unohana said. "I hope we aren't going to be hiding like this too long, Shihōin-san? You did say this was a temporary measure…"

"Maybe a week, to make sure we aren't being followed," Yoruichi said. "I need to be sure we're not leading anyone to the backup site. Tessai would never forgive me if I brought Aizen down on Jinta and Ururu."

Unohana was practically _itching_ to get to the backup site, with Tsukabishi and (Yoruichi claimed) some impressive intelligence-gathering tools that could be aimed at Seireitei, and commence _doing something_ , but she had to respect the sentiment.

…She wished she knew which side of her would be needed, to win the war. It would make it easier to get — or stay — in the proper mindset.

No matter which side she ended up using, though, she would make anyone who laid a finger on Fourth Division in general or Isane in particular regret _ever being born_.


	6. Days Three - Eleven

**Inoue Orihime**

Orihime poked listlessly at her breakfast and contemplated Grimmjow, or more precisely what Grimmjow was likely to have done with Rukia. That "Nothing, yet" had been sort of ominous, but it had to be better than Aaroniero, surely? Orihime was sure it would be better than Aaroniero. Grimmjow was… Grimmjow wasn't very nice, but he wasn't as… unnerving as what she'd seen of Aaroniero. And he didn't have any kind of particular interest in Rukia, which was probably better — but then why had he taken her?

Maybe she would just try _asking_ him.

She needed to know because she needed to know whether she could whisper it to Renji or Byakuya as a good thing.

Orihime had a mission. Every day — _every day_ , no exceptions — she was going to make one person happy. Even just for a moment, but happy.

Ulquiorra would be scornful — even more scornful than usual — if he knew, but she had to do something or she'd go insane.

 _Insane._

Relieving pain _could_ make people happy, but she didn't want to count it, because she was just healing them up to be hurt again — _soon_ — and she knew it and they knew it.

But Renji had been happy for a moment when she told him that most of the Gotei 13 was intact.

Ulquiorra had been upset with her, because Renji and the others apparently were not supposed to hear anything that made them happy, just things that made them want to break.

But.

 _Insane_.

So she _would_ find a way to tell them good things, and make them happy. Even if just for a moment.

But first she had to figure out whether Grimmjow taking Rukia was good or not.

Since that might take a while, it was a good thing there were other people she needed to tell that the Gotei 13 was mostly intact!

 **Kuchiki Rukia**

Rukia slept fitfully, curled against the wall — they'd thrown in a futon, but she couldn't reach it from where she was tied and didn't have any slack in the ropes to lie down anyway. She could have used the blanket, though.

Shortly before dawn, Edrad came in and kicked her awake — she was bitterly pleased to see his nose wasn't quite healed. He cut the ropes holding her to the wall and tossed a bundle of black and white fabric into her lap. A shihakushō? Except the kosode was white…

"Active shinigami are released to… do active shinigami things," he said. "You can use the bathroom or whatever." After another kick, he left.

Before leaving the room, Rukia pushed the futon and blanket over to just below the hook in the wall, just in case. Then she picked up the modified shihakushō and made her way warily to the bathroom. She didn't take a bath, but she did scrub down until she felt less filthy, then pulled on the shihakushō. It was a little — or a lot — too big, but she didn't care. …Actually the hakama being long enough for her to step on was a bit of a problem. She ended up tying it absurdly high.

Shawlong was waiting for her when she got out of the bathroom. Rukia was thoroughly distracted by how he was _holding her zanpankutō_ , until he laced his fingers into the yoke, and it started to burn. "You're to be back by sunset unless you have prior authorization from Tōsen-sama," he said — commanded. "He's in charge of shinigami, so do whatever he says. Other than that, you're Grimmjow-sama's property, preserve yourself."

"Hai," Rukia replied. It wasn't like the yoke gave her any other choice.

He gave her the sword.

She made it out of the house without any further interference from the fraccion, and paused in the street to get her bearings. (She couldn't bring herself to let go of Sode no Shirayuki even enough to put it through her belt, so she just clutched the zanpakutō in her hands.)

Seireitei. Dawn. Aizen's bizarre castle occupying all of Sōkyoku Hill. She was on the northeast side, maybe about halfway out… Eighth Division territory, she guessed. Which still didn't tell her exactly who the house the fraccion had taken had previously belonged to — a minor noble family, probably, or a minor branch of a larger one.

It also didn't tell her where she should be going to do "shinigami things". Eighth? Thirteenth?

Well… everything still hurt. Maybe she should try the Fourth.

The trip was quiet. She saw a few shinigami out and about, in normal uniforms, but they actively avoided her. Arrancar ignored her. There were also a few people in white and black shihakushō, who actively avoided her as soon as they noticed the yoke. She really needed some answers.

The Fourth was buzzing with activity. The person at the desk went blank-faced at — probably the uniform? — then did another take, and called, "Tell the vice-captain there's another yoke!" The look now was… pitying.

Rukia lifted her chin, glad the too-large uniform at least obscured the rope burns. And everything else.

Isane hurried out, but smiled when she saw Rukia. "Rukia, you're alive! Hanatarō will be so glad." The smile faded quickly. "Come on, back this way."

It was a private cubicle. Rukia was grateful. She was also grateful Isane didn't ask about the rope burns and bruises and bites and wrenched shoulder and… all the rest, but just treated everything.

The skin around the yoke received a good cleaning and a coat of balm, but that wouldn't stop the thing from causing more damage. "They say it's not meant to be so damaging, and they'll change it, but I don't know how long it will be. Until then, I'd like you to stop by every day, if you can, for me to track it." Isane paused at the back of her neck. "Six is Grimmjow, isn't it?"

Rukia nodded. "He wants me under his control for… I'm not sure. Something to do with Ichigo, even though he's lost his powers. But Grimmjow-sama—" Interesting. She definitely hadn't planned to add a _sama_ on that, but it came out anyway. "Grimmjow-sama has been busy elsewhere, so I've been left with the fraccion… at least one of them is still resentful about my killing him." Which she refused to be sorry about. "They did go easy on me. I guess this was why, for duties…"

"You will definitely be needed," Isane said. "No one with shikai is allowed to have their zanpakutō unless they're yoked or a whitecoat — a _sworn shinigami_."

"…People who went over voluntarily?"

"They have to go up to the castle and pledge loyalty."

"…And they wear this uniform," Rukia said. No wonder people had avoided her. How unfair.

"There are some other officers yoked," Isane said. "Kira, Ōmaeda, Yumichika, a few Visored, some others… And there may be more to come."

That wasn't exactly a good thing. "Vice-captains — are there any captains around?"

"Only Tōsen-sama," Isane said. "And not all the vice-captains are here — not Abarai, or Matsumoto, or Nemu. Although Nemu was here briefly I hear… But they're mostly in the… the castle."

Of course they were. She'd expected that, though, so she didn't allow it to hurt. "Even so, it's not as bad here as I was afraid."

"Well, um, actually…" Isane trailed off, then started over. "Tōsen-sama wanted to preserve the divisions. He wanted to destroy the clans."

…Oh. "The Kuchiki?"

"It's… bad. I think the main estate has stopped burning. Sixth Division was hit worse than most of the rest of us, too — not worse than Second or Eleventh, but the rest — because they wouldn't surrender the Kuchiki."

Rukia processed that. Of course she objected to it in principle, but personally she mostly felt sympathy for her brother's sake. She'd never been close to most of the Kuchiki. "I see."

"The children are supposed to be left alive to be, um, re-educated. We have a few here, but I probably shouldn't let you in to see them without approval from Hinamori-fukutaichō — she's in charge of the noble children."

"No, that's fine, I wouldn't want to get anyone in trouble," Rukia said. She wasn't likely to have a lot to say to most Kuchiki, or vice versa.

She would sort of like to see if she could salvage anything from her rooms at the estate, though. Maybe she would ask Shawlong. She could at least get hakama that fit from Thirteenth.

Isane sent her on her way shortly afterwards. She was relieved to see Hanatarō on her way out, and he was clearly relieved to see her, but then he was called to assist with an urgent patient. She promised to come back later.

"Do, please," he said. "Ishida and Sado — they're at Twelfth—"

Twelfth. _Shit_.

But at least they were alive.

Rukia walked briskly to Thirteenth, one hand on Sode no Shirayuki's hilt. Now that she was knew what to look for, she could see the damage was focused around noble compounds.

"Grimmjow-sama," she whispered under her breath. There it was again. "Ulquiorra. Szayelaporro. Yammy. Aaroniero." Good. "Aaroniero is a creepy lying freak." Better. "Aizen-sama. Tōsen-sama." Damn. "Ichimaru." Iiiinteresting. "Shawlong." Good. "Di Roy is a loser." Good. And then Thirteenth was in sight, and she stopped talking to herself before anyone could notice.

"Kuchiki?" said the unseated officer on duty at the gates. "You swore—"

Rukia gave him a poisonous look and pointed at her neck.

"Oh." He brightened. "That's great!"

"It's — _what_?" It was much better than being held by Aaroniero, but still—

"No! No, I didn't mean — it's — each division has to have three people with shikai, and we didn't have any trai — uh — whitecoats from our division, so we got these three people who used to be in Eleventh, and not the good kind of Eleventh, and they've been giving the Third Seats trouble ever since they got here—"

And now that Rukia was here, maybe they could at least get rid of one of them. "I see. Where are they?"

Before he could answer, Sentarō started shouting. "You do _not_ have the right to order _anyone_ in this division to do—"

"I am a _sworn shinigami_ and you are—"

"That does _not_ put you in command!"

"I'd like to see you try to stop me!"

The whitecoat — who certainly had the look of Eleventh Division — hadn't unsealed his zanpakutō, but Sentarō didn't even have his sword. The unseated officers behind him did, but didn't look up to… much of anything. Rukia drew and leapt, coming down between them, facing the whitecoat.

"Kuchiki!" Sentarō said.

The whitecoat gaped. "You — you're yoked! You can't—"

"I'm under orders to defend myself if necessary," Rukia said grimly. "Are you going to make it necessary?"

The whitecoat spluttered. "But you can't—"

"I expect Grimmjow-sama would probably find it amusing if I got in a fight with sworn shinigami," she added for good measure. "Probably less amusing if I were seriously hurt — I'd be punished, and he might even retaliate against my opponent — but fighting he'd approve of."

The whitecoat gaped some more.

Backed down.

"Well… fine. But only because of the Espada! Not because of you."

He swaggered away.

"Kuchiki!" Sentarō said again. "You're…"

She turned to see him struggling with words. Alive? Okay? Back? Yoked? "Reporting for duty," she said. "With shikai."

He hesitated for a long moment, then grinned. "Good to hear. Maybe we can get rid of one of these assholes."

"Are they all like that?"

Sentarō scowled. "He's the worst, but—"

"Kotsubaki!" Kiyone pelted into the yard, followed by Nanao, followed by a dark-haired woman with a yoke and a white kosode and slightly off reiatsu. "I brought — Kuchiki?"

"Yes," Sentarō said. "Who's _that_?"

"Be polite!" snapped Kiyone. "Yadōmaru-san came here as a _special favor_ to Nanao to _rescue you_."

"Keep this up and I _will_ knock your heads together," Yadōmaru-san said. She looked at Rukia. "Kuchiki Rukia — you're one of Ichigo's shinigami friends, aren't you?"

"Yes," Rukia said. "You're — one of the Visored?"

"Yes. Yadōmaru Lisa. You can call me Lisa."

Rukia nodded politely. "Has anyone told you Ichigo is alive but powerless?"

Lisa straightened. "I heard the rumor — you got it confirmed?"

Rukia nodded confirmation. "From Grimmjow-sama. He says he'll be bringing Ichigo to his Seireitei residence as soon as he's allowed to. He, um, wants a rematch with Ichigo, so he intends to make him regain his powers and then fight him. He says."

Lisa stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. "I bet it'll actually work, too. He planning on keeping you two together?"

"I get that impression. I'm supposed to be… motivation."

"Sucks. Well, when he shows up you can tell him me and Mashiro and Hiyori are around."

"I will," Rukia promised.

While Rukia spoke with Lisa, Sentarō and Kiyone had been having a high-speed discussion about which shikai-wielding whitecoat they wanted to kick out now that they had Rukia. Lisa offered to go make sure he left, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

"Go ahead," Nanao said. "I need to talk to Rukia anyway."

When Nanao drew her into the empty vice-captain's office, Rukia was expecting something else about the Kuchiki — but instead, Nanao told her about the carload of humans Matsumoto had brought out of Karakura.

"The person you really need to talk to is Kuramadani," Nanao finished. "But…"

 _"Ichi-nii"_ , one of them had said. That had to be Karin. And if Yuzu hadn't been there, Karin would surely have been demanding her? "Yes. I. I'll talk to him," Rukia said. " _Thank you_."

That night, she returned to the house before curfew, knelt, and asked permission to look for salvage at the estate. The fraccion discussed it and decided it was allowed as long as they were the ones running the show and doing their own looting. Why Edrad wanted the porcelain tea set he picked up Rukia couldn't begin to imagine. It probably wouldn't last twenty-four hours.

For her part, Rukia was able to salvage a few books, a few Chappy toys, and two nice kimono from the storage space under what had been her room. She almost threw the kimono back, but guessed the chance of Grimmjow or the fraccion demanding she dress up was low.

(She also froze her way into the smoldering remnants of Byakuya's room to see if there was anything left of his cabinet. The picture of Hisana was a little scorched, but salvageable.)

(The first teacup broke on the way back.)

 **Suì-Fēng**

The Onmitsukidō trained for ugly fights.

The Gotei 13 saw a share of civil strife and revolts and so on, but at the end of the day, their primary purpose was purifying Hollows, performing soul burials, and balancing the Realms. It was a noble, necessary purpose, and it let shinigami wear a clean conscience.

The Onmitsukidō's primary purpose was to fight (and control, and contain, and punish) _people_.

"The Onmitsukidō was created to fight the Gotei 13, if necessary," Yoruichi had told her, long ago. "It was described as _balancing_ it, of course, but everyone knew what it meant. Central 46 needed some sort of leverage in case the Gotei went rogue. Why do you think one of the highest noble families was put in control of the Onmitsukidō?"

Young Suì-Fēng had nodded seriously. "But… you're part of the Gotei 13, now, too?"

Yoruichi had smirked. "Yes, yes I am. And at this point it's likely the consolidation will stick even after I'm not around."

The young Suì-Fēng had been mystified, but the older Suì-Fēng understood Yoruichi had felt that if it ever came to the point of Yamamoto threatening force against Central 46, he'd probably have a very good reason, and she hadn't _wanted_ the Onmitsukidō to function as a balancing force — not one under Central 46's control, anyway. Suì-Fēng had wondered, sometimes, how she'd react if her two duties ever pulled her in different directions, but it had never come to that.

The point was, to be Onmitsukidō was to be prepared for the ugly things people did to other people. They scoffed at torture. They scoffed at sexual torture. No head of the Onmitsukidō would be broken by multiple rape.

That didn't mean she wasn't memorizing the face and name of every man (and it had been all men, so far) who dared lay a hand on her. She'd avenge this… _indignity_.

Apart, of course, from the Onmitsukidō officers who had to assault her to make their conversion to the traitor's side believable. Sometimes you had to do unpleasant things to preserve your cover.

 **Urahara Kisuke**

Urahara wished for his fan, but settled for ostentatious finger-counting. "One, despite my admittedly dire predicament, I haven't yet agreed to help you with anything." He held up another finger. "Two, Mayuri acquired this particular… skill sometime after my exile, and I've never had the chance to study it — there's no reason I'd be better at this than anyone else." A third finger. "And finally, while I could be wrong since, as I mentioned, I have no experience with that, I would guess that Mayuri can only resolidify when… all of him is present." He looked askance at the bucket at Aizen's feet. "That can't be more than ten liters. You'd have to ask Nemu to be sure, but I'd guess you want at least five times that."

There was a sloshing noise.

"Is it… he… moving around by himself in there?"

 **Sado Yasutora**

Two days passed with nothing but feedings and occasional visits from a scientist who seemed to think she could function as a doctor. The lone highlight was the information that Kuchiki Rukia had tried to bribe her way in to talk to them, but hadn't come back because she was on assignment to the world of the living. Ishida spent several hours dissecting all the implications of this — that she was alive, that she had enough freedom of movement and access to resources to attempt to bribe someone, that she was trying to get to them, that the world of the living was intact and shinigami were being sent there, but they had enough confidence in their control over Kuchiki to send her there alone, and… Sado just sat back and let him speculate. It got his mind off their predicament in general and his missing glasses in particular.

But after two days, Szayelaporro came to Twelfth Division, and almost immediately had Ishida hauled off. (He didn't come to the Quincy cell personally, quite, but they could hear him out in the hall.)

"What does he want with him?" Sado asked the ersatz doctor.

"I'm not sure," she said, prodding one of his bruises without doing any good that Sado could see. "We _told_ him we had more Quincy data on file than anyone could ever want — I was honestly expecting him to go after you, the Fullbringer data is a lot thinner…"

"The what?"

"Fullbringer data — we think that's what you are…"

Ichigo or Ishida or even Inoue could have put their foot down, one way or another, and maybe gotten an answer to WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE A NAME AND CATEGORY FOR MY POWERS, WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD ABOUT THIS BEFORE, but Sado was still searching for words when the Twelfth Division non-doctor left again. Shit. And he hadn't gotten any real explanation about what Szayelaporro was doing to Ishida, either.

They brought Ishida back a few hours later. He refused to talk about anything, but just sat and stared at — probably nothing, considering how little he could apparently see without his glasses. Sado didn't think he was hurt worse than he had been before, but he definitely wasn't feeling well.

The non-doctor came back a while later, looking notably more upbeat. "Szayelaporro-sama had to go back to Hueco Mundo," she announced, between unhelpful pokes at Ishida. "Turns out he didn't get all of Kurotsuchi-taichō."

Sado didn't think there was anything to say to that.

When the non-doctor was gone, Ishida dragged himself slowly into a sitting position. "I want to — to laugh about the wet-dry vacuum cleaner some more, but I think it would hurt too much." He coughed. "Szayelaporro is a terrible excuse for a scientist. Even these Twelfth Division… shinigami are better."

"…What did he do that was so… unscientific?" Sado asked eventually.

Ishida coughed again, and it turned into wheezing before he managed to stop. "He didn't take any notes," he declared finally. "He just laughed maniacally the whole time."

"And… what did he do to you?" Sado tried.

Ishida scoffed, and started coughing again. "Stupid unscientific things."

Sado would have taken the not-able-to-stop-crying over not-able-to-stop-coughing, as it turned out.

 **Kyōraku Shunsui**

Shunsui had officially allotted the time between his return to the sekkiseki cell and Orihime's healing rounds to Not Thinking. It wasn't always easy, but the mental recharge could be helpful.

Tonight, the gentle tingle of healing (so different from Aizen's harsh fixes) was accompanied by a whisper. "Most of the Gotei 13 is intact and trying to carry out normal operations," Orihime said.

He kept his smile to a twitch of the lips. "Thank you, Orihime-chan," he murmured.

He had actually had a fairly good idea of that already. Enjōji hadn't been able to communicate much, but Shunsui had gathered that there were others left behind at Eighth, who hadn't chosen to go up the hill, whom those who _had_ might be able to protect. Shunsui was counting on Nanao being one of those. It was good to hear that most of the rest of the division was probably fine, too.

(He had to hope that Aizen either hadn't been watching closely enough to realize Enjōji's contempt for and resentment of Kyōraku had been an act, or didn't mind a few people slipping through the proving ground by sacrificing their own conscience without changing their loyalties.)

(Of the four officers who'd come with Enjōji, one had refused the proving ground outright and been killed. One had picked Rangiku, which Shunsui was not going to lightly forget or forgive — or forgive himself, for his responsibility for his officer. The last two were still trying to get up the nerve to do _something_.)

Well, with Orihime-chan come and gone, it was sadly time for thinking. Shunsui eased up to lean against the wall.

Three days down. Who knows how many to go.

Shunsui wasn't… overburdened with free time in the "proving ground", but he had some, and he spent most of it trying to evaluate the others' conditions, as much as he could by reiatsu and glimpses on the way in and out and sounds he'd rather not hear.

Suì-Fēng was holding her own, Shunsui believed, Onmitsukidō to the core. She wouldn't break, not really, unless Aizen managed to get hold of Yoruichi. He wasn't worried about Suì-Fēng. She'd probably take his head off if he dared. And she'd know somehow.

He _couldn't_ not worry about Jūshirō. It seemed there weren't all that many people nursing a grudge with Ukitake — no surprise there — and most of those there were weren't anything to feel bad about in Shunsui's opinion. It still hurt Jū — the idea of it even more than what they did to him. And there was his health.

Sasakibe… Shunsui wasn't sure what was going on in Sasakibe's head. Yama-jii's oldest supporter was old enough to be sure in himself, but he seemed to be… faltering.

The others — were younger, and not Onmitsukidō trained. The sexual abuse was taking a toll. Or other abuse — as far as Shunsui could tell, no one had quite sunk to the point of molesting someone who looked like a child, not yet.

Komamura hadn't gotten much of that, either, and Shunsui thought that was almost disturbing the Seventh Division captain more. Having to lie there, helpless, untouched, while other people were hurt… He shouted a lot. Mostly for Tōsen to explain himself. Tōshirō was much quieter than Shunsui would have predicted. He snarled and snapped and growled, but didn't shout. It was a good call, if it was a calculated decision — without his sword, his haori, his reiatsu, Tōshirō's shouting wasn't very impressive. That was probably how Tōshirō would explain it, if someone asked.

Renji and Rangiku were holding on, still. They had both probably thought they'd gotten away from the risk of anything like this a long time ago, and now… now they were trapped. They sounded like they were starting to run out of anger, which wasn't good.

Ikkaku wasn't doing anything but growling, anymore. That was even less good.

Byakuya had retreated into his perfect Kuchiki mask. It was serving him well so far. Shunsui just hoped Byakuya wouldn't shatter when it did.

 **Hisagi Shūhei**

The whitecoats kept coming.

Would-be whitecoats kept _going_ up to the castle, despite all the vague warnings Hisagi gave — and to be fair, some of them were nobles' private soldiers who didn't have anywhere else to go, unless they wanted to take their chances in the Rukongai. So they kept going up, and they kept coming back — not as many as the first day, generally, only about twenty to thirty a day, and usually unofficial reports of four or five more who'd failed the loyalty test and been killed. Hisagi was trying to get Tōsen to give some sort of official death notification to the divisions of those who were killed. No luck so far.

But the whitecoats kept coming, and Hisagi kept _wondering_.

He could barely bring himself to face the sworn shinigami from Ninth — he did, because they were his responsibility, and they were _especially_ his responsibility because he was sure at least half of them wouldn't have considered going up the hill if he weren't… cooperating with Tōsen. So he did. And he did _not_ ask them what _exactly_ they'd done, to 'prove their loyalty'. Who they'd hurt. They weren't supposed to say anything about it anyway, and he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to ask. And it would do no good anyway, so Hisagi said nothing.

He just… wondered.

(That man was punched by Matsumoto for getting too forward at a bar. That man liked to talk trash about nobles in general and Kuchiki Byakuya in particular. That man always used to grind his teeth when he saw Kyōraku drinking.)

Hisagi wasn't sure if it made it better or worse that as days passed it became clear they desperately needed all the shikai-wielding whitecoats they could get.

 **Kuchiki Rukia**

Rukia's first mission to the Living World was very quiet, _surprisingly_ quiet. She would have expected the disaster in Karakura to have stirred things up, but there were hardly any Hollows to be seen and the Whole souls she found were eager to move on, finding the world to be a frightening place at the moment.

Which was sort of ironic, considering, but she didn't tell them that.

She paused a few times to watch television coverage of the Karakura disaster, and caught what was apparently a much-replayed attempted interview with the survivors. Don Kanonji started telling a story about evil gods and beautiful spirit women, but was interrupted by a young woman it took Rukia a minute to recognize as Keigo's sister, who shoved him out of the way (and off his feet) and shouted at the reporters about basic human decency. In the background, Rukia spotted Tatsuki holding Yuzu, with Karin beside her.

It wasn't that she hadn't believed Kuramadani, but it was good to have confirmation.

The yoke burned intermittently. Rukia couldn't figure out any particular pattern to it.

She hadn't even been in the Living World forty-eight hours, though, when her soul phone transmitted an urgent recall. She'd been looking forward to having more time fraccion-free, but oh well.

Kiyone was waiting for her when she arrived in Seireitei. "Your interim report said everything was quiet, right?"

"Yes, unusually—"

"Good. We'll send a team of lower officers. The Rukongai is _not_ quiet. I think it's the worst I've ever seen. Head for West Eleventh — we're trying to sweep out to Twentieth."

"Hai!"

When she arrived in West Eleventh District, she found the Thirteenth Division officers working in teams — disarmed seated officers using kido to immobilize the Hollows long enough for the weaker, still-armed officers to purify them. The whitecoats — four of them now — were there and taking out Hollows, but they weren't working with the teams and seemed to be ignoring Sentarō's orders.

The Hollows were basic Hollows — but there had to be dozens of them, and this was _only eleven districts out_. Not good at all.

Rukia released her shikai and sprang into the fray.

Six hours later, they were only at West Fifteenth when a team from Eighth Division came to take over. They dragged back to the Seireitei and got the wounded to Fourth. Since Sentarou had been there, Rukia didn't need to report. She was grateful. The yoke had apparently realized the Living World was detached duty, but now back in Soul Society it apparently thought she should be trying to keep her curfew.

When Di Roy tried to ambush her just inside the house, she clocked him in the face with her sword hilt.

"Feisty today!" Grimmjow said, grinning. "And sweaty, bloody… Back off, boys, I think I'll try her out. But put down the sword first, shinigami girl."

The yoke burned. Rukia growled but placed Sode no Shirayuki carefully beside the door.

"You can use lower-level kido if you want," Grimmjow added, and lunged for her — considerably below his actual top speed.

Rukia managed to knock Grimmjow through one partition and set another one on fire. When Grimmjow finally stopped playing and tackled her, they both went through the floor into a storage compartment. Rukia got the worst of that, but she did manage to hit Grimmjow with a rotting eggplant, and his expression was… unique. In the end, Rukia got pinned down and fucked, but only once, and then she got to go take a bath, while the fraccion were the ones who had to clean up the trashed house. She'd take what she could get.

 **Inoue Orihime**

Ulquiorra had begun bringing Orihime to Espada meetings and having her kneel on the floor beside his seat. She wasn't sure why, but after just a few times she started considering sewing some padding into her skirt, because kneeling on a stone floor turned out to be very uncomfortable. She also wasn't sure why Ulquiorra kept resting a hand on her head during meetings. The chairs didn't have armrests, but all the rest of the Espada didn't seem to have a problem resting their arms on the table!

Sometimes — not just in the meetings — he would stroke her hair, or touch her face. Orihime always held very still and pretended nothing was happening. Because she _knew_ what was happening elsewhere in the castle (to Rangiku and Renji and Tōshirō and the other captains and Rukia before Grimmjow took her away and please, if she could have just one prayer granted, please not Kurosaki-kun) — this _was_ nothing! It wasn't as scary as threatening to pull her heart out of her chest, it was just… weird. But Ulquiorra was just… confused. He was confused about feelings. So she would be patient with him even when he scared her!

At any rate, the Espada meetings were more _interesting_ than sitting around waiting to be summoned! Although the Primera didn't seem to find it very interesting. He looked like he was asleep.

The Quinta dropped into his chair and put his feet on the table, his blond fraccion standing behind him. "Hey Grimmjow, what's this I hear about your pet setting you on fire?"

Orihime's attention sharpened. Did he mean Rukia?

Grimmjow just laughed. "Nah, that was part of the house. And maybe Di Roy. Worst she did to me was smash some fucking _vegetable_ on me."

"And you let your _pet_ get away with that?"

"Get away with what? I told her she could fight, she fought, I beat her. She's not strong enough to be really worth my while, but she's fierce if you get her riled. I had my fun."

Orihime wondered how to interpret that, then decided she should probably interpret it the worst way. Not something she should tell Byakuya, then. Although Grimmjow was probably still preferable to Aaroniero. Maybe Renji would be able to appreciate that? And maybe the fighting part?

"And then I sent her to work in the morning, because _I_ can manage my pet in a way that doesn't piss Tōsen off."

Oh, but going to work was probably a good thing! She could definitely mention that to Byakuya and Renji and probably Ukitake.

"Shame you can't manage anything else that way," the Segunda grunted. _He_ had someone kneeling by his chair. She didn't recognize all of his fraccion yet.

The Quinta scowled darkly at Grimmjow. "The new one was definitely old enough—"

"She was an off-duty shinigami," the Tercera interrupted. "You could tell from the zanpakutō. And the uniform."

…It did seem like that should have been a hint.

Before the Quinta could try to justify himself further, Aizen arrived, and the chatter quickly died.

Orihime hugged herself and shivered. Aizen had never in her experience been _comfortable_ to be around, but it was definitely worse now. It made her feel like she was so small and insignificant she barely even existed. It almost made her appreciate Ulquiorra's hand on her head as a reminder someone knew she was real. Not quite, though.

Aizen called the meeting open. Loly and Menoly served tea.

"The first order of business this morning is the continuing unexpectedly disruptive Hollow incursions in the Rukongai," Aizen said. "Until we vet and train sufficient sworn shinigami to deal with them, arrancar may be called upon to assist. If Tōsen assigns you to this duty, do _not_ consume the Hollow — immobilize it to be purified by shinigami."

Hollow incursions in the Rukongai was probably something the captains would _want_ to know about, but it wouldn't make anyone _happy_ to know about it. Leave that for now.

"Szayelaporro is not with us today as he is still on assignment in Hueco Mundo."

Szayelaporro had come back from Hueco Mundo with _some_ of liquified Kurotsuchi-taichō and said it was _all_ of liquified Kurotsuchi-taichō. Orihime thought it was an understandable mistake — it wasn't like there was a handbook on these things — but reportedly it had taken Urahara-san about thirty seconds to conclude Kurotsuchi wasn't all there, so Szayelaporro was slightly out of favor over the error, and being punished by being made to stay in Hueco Mundo finding the rest of Kurotsuchi-taichō.

"Speaking of Hueco Mundo, we have now completed the construction of a sekkiseki pit in which any treasonous arrancar may be cast, to fight the Kenpachi until they die."

The Quinta perked up. "If you want to make him madder, I volunteer to kill that little pink bitch he carried around with him."

"…That won't be necessary, Nnoitra. Although I am willing to give you leave to go to Hueco Mundo and _capture_ Kusajishi if you're that interested in her?" Aizen gave the Quinta an artfully doubtful look, and the Espada slumped down again.

"Nahhh. Something'll eat her soon enough."

Yachiru-chan was still free? Or uncaptured, at least? Orihime bowed her head and let her hair cover her face, and hoped no one would see her smile.

Today she'd made _herself_ happy! Success.

…Or, no, actually, Aizen and Nnoitra had accidentally made her happy. She had better go ahead and tell Byakuya or Renji about Rukia going back to work.

 **Yamada Hanatarō**

Hanatarō had been hoping to be let in to see Sado and Ishida again, but he'd been thinking of just a follow-up check to make sure everything was healing properly, not sudden serious illness and "uncontrollable vomiting". When Hanatarō finally got all the way in to the Quincy cell, there was no active vomiting, but Ishida looked awful. Sado, the cell, and Tsubokura Rin didn't look much better.

"What are you doing here?" Hanatarō asked. "Aren't you in… um…"

"Sensors," Rin said. "I volunteered? Sort of…"

He didn't elaborate, and Hanatarō decided not to ask — not before he'd seen his patient, at least.

"He said… he said he wasn't hurt, after the Espada took him again," Sado said.

"I wasn't!" Ishida said, then closed his eyes and clapped a hand over his mouth.

True, Hanatarō wasn't seeing any signs of injuries since his last visit. The incisions had healed further. Ishida did react badly to any pressure on his abdomen, though, and he looked like he was retaining water…

Hanatarō winced. "I think that thing on your liver is causing problems."

"His _liver_?" Rin said. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

Ishida groaned and dropped his head back to the cot. "Of course it is."

Hanatarō looked at Rin. "Could you go, um, inform Third Seat Akon of this? I don't want to get anyone in trouble with, uh, whichever number Espada it is, but unless you're supposed to be monitoring what it does — I mean, um, this could kill him?"

Rin nodded, eyes wide. "I'll… try to get in to see Third Seat Akon. Can you stay with them until then?"

"Well… I should be back at Fourth by sunset unless I'm actively doing something…" There hadn't been many instances of arrancar cracking down on curfew violations, but there had been a few. (Most noteworthy had been the 'oh-you're-out-after-dark-you-must-be-a-noble' incident with the Quinta.) There had been more whitecoats cracking down, and most of them cracked down on Fourth. "But I can stay for a while."

As soon as Rin was gone, Hanatarō started digging through his kit. "Rukia-san tried to get in to see you, but they wouldn't let her."

"We heard," Sado said. "Is she okay?"

Hanatarō thought of bleeding yoke and permanently bruised wrists and how Kotetsu-fukutaichō took Rukia into a private cubicle for treatment every morning she came in to get the yoke checked. "She's… coping? She's back on duty at Thirteenth, they're keeping her busy." He lowered his voice. "One of the things she wanted to tell you is a, um, a car-load of people made it out of Karakura Town into the Rukongai before the, um… before the town was destroyed, and get sent back to the Living World." He pulled a tightly folded piece of paper out of his kit. "This is Rukia-san's best guess of who was in it, after talking to Kuramadani and Ise-fukutaichō."

Both Sado and Ishida moved to grab it, but Ishida stopped short and let Sado have it. "I really want my glasses," he muttered.

Sado quickly read over the note. "Don Kanonji?" he muttered. "Yuzu and Karin, Arisawa-san, Keigo and Mizuiro, Chizuru, Kunieda and Ogawa, Keigo's sister, Arisawa-san's mother…"

"Not your band friends?" Ishida muttered.

"I hope they were out of town," Sado said. "Your father…"

"Ryūken would never have allowed shinigami to move him anywhere, much less into Soul Society," Ishida said. "I'm sure he's _fine_."

After a minute, Sado handed the note back to Hanatarō. "Thank you."

"And thank Kuchiki," Ishida added. "And Ise-fukutaichō, and… should I know who Kuramadani is?"

"The shinigami who — who was assigned to Karakura," Hanatarō said. "He was there. And so was Matsumoto-san — I think she sort of organized the, the getting out of the town part, but she's not here now — they took her away, and no one knows why…"

"Who knows why they do _anything_ ," Ishida said, then gagged.

Rin came back with Third Seat Akon. Akon looked like he was at the end of his rope, but from Hanatarō's experience that was pretty normal for him.

"His _liver_?" Akon asked, then shook his head. "Never mind. He didn't give us any instructions about experiments or observations, just said to hold them…" His frown deepened, then eased a bit. "That includes keeping them alive. What do you need to do?"

Hanatarō saw his own relief mirrored on Sado and Rin. "Well, at the Emergency Relief Station—"

"What do you need to do to resolve the problem without letting them out of Twelfth?"

Oh dear. "Well, um — I'm not, uh, I don't have any experience leading a surgery—"

"Oh, that won't be a problem. I'll get Hiyosu."

Oh _dear_. "Um—"

Akon brightened a bit. "If the problem is something on his liver, we can take that out, no problem. Just wait here, it shouldn't take long, you can fix him up when we're done."

 _Oh_ dear.

 **Ishida Uryū**

The frog-faced shinigami seemed ready to operate with _no anesthetic whatsoever_ , but the Third Seat stopped him and sent someone for nitrous oxide. "He's already weak, he could go into shock," he said. "And that Fourth Division kid would make big, sad eyes at us, and we want to be maintaining good relations with Fourth right now."

Nitrous oxide was not, Uryū decided shortly thereafter, an _adequate_ anesthetic for having your abdomen opened up. He clenched his teeth and tried not to scream or cry.

"That's nasty," someone said. "What is that, acid? Poison?"

"No, chemically it looks inert… It's leaking Hollow reiatsu, though."

"Would that normally kill the tissue like that?"

"Not in a shinigami. Quincy are more fragile, though — check the data."

Quincy were not _fragile_. Uryū opened his mouth to say so, and a mortifying sobbing noise came out. He clamped his jaw again. They gave him more nitrous oxide. Unfortunately this was distracting enough that he wasn't paying attention when they finally took out the whatever-it-was and didn't get a good look at it, or even any look at it.

Someone went and got Hanatarō. He looked horrified — whether at Uryū's condition or Twelfth's idea of an operating room Uryū didn't know.

"He's still _awake_?" Hanatarō yelped. And he started chanting kidō, and then Uryū wasn't.

 **Ise Nanao**

Nanao only heard a day after the fact that her cousin had been netted by Nnoitra's third (or fifth, depending on how you counted) attempt at taking a Seireitei pet. She probably would have heard sooner, and a little more tactfully, if Lisa hadn't been in Fourth recovering from nearly getting her leg bitten off by a Menos — a _Menos_ — in West Forty-Second, but as it was Mashiro invited herself into Nanao's office and said, "Sorry about your sister getting fucked by Nnoitra. Uh. I mean fucked up. Uh. I mean yoked."

Nanao blinked. "I don't have any sisters." But someone they concluded was related to her— "I have cousins — Nobume? Or Nariko? Or — Nariko has daughters, they're still young, it wasn't one of them, was it?" She did know Nariko's daughters' names, they just weren't coming to her at the moment, which was very embarrassing since the elder was her nominal heir as nominal clan head…

"It wasn't a kid," Mashiro said judiciously. "Barragan congratulated Nnoitra on learning to tell children from adults. I think the name started with an N but I guess that doesn't help."

Nanao was… mostly sure both Nariko's daughters would still be considered children.

Damn. This was just the sort of thing she'd been afraid of when she'd strongly urged Nobume to get out of Seireitei.

Well, no. Nanao didn't really have the sort of relationship with her cousins where she could strongly urge them to do anything. She had her duty and they had theirs, which would have been hers if her mother hadn't had her sent to Shin'ō Academy. Nanao felt sort of bad about that — she wouldn't want to be stuck tending a shrine — but none of the vaguely-worded reproaches she'd fielded from Nobume over the decades ever implied her cousins had anything they'd rather be doing, just that her proper place was with them. No thank you.

So when she'd found out her mother's family had survived the fall of Seireitei intact — their home was evidently not flashy enough to advertise 'nobles' to arrancar — she had very mildly suggested they might want to leave Seireitei. Maybe talk to Kiyone and see where Ukitake-taichō's family had been spirited off to? Just — don't count on escaping once meaning escaping again.

And for all her nominal position as clan head, that was all Nanao felt she had a right to do. Her cousins would have agreed with that assessment, even though they hadn't agreed to get out of Seireitei.

But even if she didn't have any rights, she had responsibilities, so early the next morning she went to Fourth, in time for the yoke exams.

 **Kotetsu Isane**

At least after the disaster with the Kuchiki girls at the yoke verification meeting, Tōsen had made sure the arrancar knew they had to be _careful_ with the yoked. Isane appreciated it. She didn't think it would take more than a few over-forceful or resisted orders to do permanent injury to Nasu Rokurō, Dordoni's "manservant". Even what the Kuchiki girls or little Sacchi had survived would probably kill him.

"I just do what he says, Vice-Captain," he'd said when Isane had asked how he was doing. "I have a family. This gives them… a little bit of a shield, at least."

At the other end of the scale were the three Visored, who saw a lot of irritation, but usually not more than superficial cuts and slight burns even if they fought an order — which they didn't, usually, apart from Sarugaki Hiyori who was just an… argumentative sort of person. They were also in and out almost daily for battle wounds anyway, so Isane had privately granted permission for them to skip the morning check-ins if they wanted.

The Sixteenth Seat of Fifth Division wasn't as badly off as the civilians, but it wasn't good. The marks from the yoke ran into his whip injuries — Cirucci seemed very fond of recreational whipping — and oozed blood almost constantly, despite daily kidō healing and careful bandaging.

The Fourteenth Seat of Tenth had only been in Nnoitra's custody a few hours before Tōsen found out. He'd judged 'having been sort of near a noble house after dark' to be inadequate justification for yoking an active shinigami, and also that he didn't think Nnoitra could manage an active shinigami properly, and the woman had been released. Physically, she was recovering well. Mentally would take longer.

Despite being an unseated officer, Kuchiki Rukia was holding up under the yoke considerably better. She still really needed to come in every morning to deal with the effects of — as far as Isane could tell — a brawl with one to five arrancar followed by at least one rape. Rukia seemed determined to focus on the fights, and would triumphantly report fraccion with broken noses and fraccion knocked through partitions and fraccion set on fire. If it helped her to frame it that way, Isane wasn't going to argue. And it was true Rukia's injuries didn't speak of calculated torture.

Sadly, the same could not be said for Kira and Yumichika, and to a lesser extent Ōmaeda. Barragan and his fraccion never seemed to get tired of calculated cruelty. Kira claimed to be getting used to the rape and torture, and it was almost believable; Yumichika refused to comment at all. Ōmaeda was getting… brittle. They had more yoke-enforced orders than the Visored, so it was hard to be sure, but Isane believed they showed a little less resistance to the yoke's effects.

The latest victim was unfortunately another civilian, but at least an adult, and someone with above-average spiritual strength — though not as strong as Nanao, who was just coming into the Emergency Relief Station.

"Isane," Nanao said. "Mashiro said one of my cousins—"

"Ise Nariko," Isane said. "I asked her yesterday if there was anyone I should inform, but she said her family knew—"

"Her sister did, I'm sure," Nanao said, expression neutral. "Is she still here? Could I talk to her?"

"You're just in time," Isane said. "We're just taking some notes on the yoke's condition — she's already been — treated…" For some yoke damage, and a lot of non-yoke damage.

She was really coming to hate Nnoitra.

Isane stepped into the cubicle just as the nurse was finishing. "Ise-san, Ise-fukutaichō would like to talk to you, if you're willing…?"

Nariko sighed heavily. "Might as well." She looked up. "Nanao-sama."

"Nariko-san," Nanao said, moving past Isane as the nurse excused herself. "Are you — I mean—"

"You were right," Nariko said. "We should have left Seireitei."

Nanao winced, but didn't say anything. Isane knew she should probably leave them in private, but lingered in the doorway instead.

"Onee-sama isn't going to leave _now_ , of course," Nariko said. "Even if someone tells her Nnoitra-sama is planning to go back for her as soon as he's issued another yoke. Hopefully that will be a little while. But I don't know for sure." She made an expression approximating a smile. "New and different challenge for the curse, yes? I'm actually morbidly curious!"

"There — probably isn't much I can do," Nanao said. "But if there is—?"

"Look out for Noriyo and Katae. Get into whatever shinigami-training thing noble children are going into. Onee-sama won't send them herself." Nariko rubbed her temples. "They won't be happy about it — they likely won't be happy about anything for a while—" She broke off as the yoke started bleeding again. "I need to go."

(Isane made a mental note to ask Hisagi to ask Tōsen to remind Nnoitra that he was not supposed to infringe upon the necessary yoke checks.)

Goodbyes were brief and awkward.

When Nariko was gone, Nanao closed her eyes. "I almost wish he'd taken Nobume. Nariko probably would have been willing to take the girls and run, after that."

Isane wasn't sure what to say. "I… can keep you updated…"

Nanao shook her head. "Only if she asks you to. We're not — close." She took a deep breath. "She asked me to look out for Noriyo and Katae. I'll talk to Hinamori, and look out for Noriyo and Katae."

"Family…" Isane said. "Family is hard."

 **Kuchiki Rukia**

Thirteenth had the day off from Rukongai patrol. This was good because everyone, even the sworn shinigami, was exhausted and desperately needed a break, but at the same time Rukia had sort of been hoping to be out of Seireitei when Grimmjow found out about the Yylfordt-shaped hole in the exterior wall. Oh, well. He'd probably just think it was funny.

Kiyone assigned Rukia to rest and drink some of Fourth's reiatsu-restoring tea — even if she needed practice, right now she couldn't spare the energy.

Midmorning, Hinamori showed up at Thirteenth asking for Rukia.

"You don't have to go," Kiyone said, glaring in Hinamori's general direction. "She's asking, not ordering. Damned whitecoat—"

Rukia didn't point out that technically she could also be classified as a whitecoat, or even that both Isane and Nanao had seemed to view Hinamori and Hisagi's positions as net positives for everyone else. She just said, "I'm curious. Since she _is_ asking, not ordering."

Hinamori looked relieved when Rukia emerged. "Rukia-san, how are you? How's the yoke? I mean — for research purposes — I've been assigned to redesign it so it doesn't injure people constantly—"

Rukia considered that and revised what she'd been intending to say. "It aches all the time — a sort of dull burn — but it's not… bad. It burns more and cuts whenever someone gives an order, especially a… remote one. Grimmjow-sama is, um, does not issue a lot of remote orders to me, I guess he thinks it's, uh, no challenge, so… I personally am not having major yoke problems."

"That's good to hear," Hinamori said. "That wasn't the main reason I wanted to talk to you, though. Can we sit down, um, somewhere not here?"

Rukia could feel Kiyone's glare, and it wasn't even directed at her. On the other hand, Rukia didn't feel up to dealing with civilians or random passersby. "…Fourth? Or Eighth?"

"Oh, that's a good idea. I can update Nanao at the same time. Are you all right to flash-step? I know you've been working hard…"

(Update Nanao on what?) Rukia evaluated her reserves, keeping in mind that they'd be out again soon. "I shouldn't go too far, but Eighth shouldn't be a problem."

Eighth had a handful of whitecoats among its officers. Curiously, they avoided Hinamori's eyes more than the others did. Rukia didn't ask, but followed Hinamori to Nanao's office. Nanao was there, with Lisa and another Visored with short green hair. One of Lisa's legs was splinted and swathed in bandages.

"Hinamori," Nanao said, then, "Rukia, how are you?"

Rukia was actually pleased she looked put together enough that people were comfortable asking how she was. "Holding up, thank you."

"You met Lisa the other day, but this is Kuna Mashiro."

"Also a Visored," Lisa said. "Mashiro, this is Kuchiki Rukia. Don't let the name put you off, she's one of Ichigo's shinigami friends."

"The name wouldn't put me off, I just feel sorry for them now," Mashiro said blankly.

Rukia bowed politely, choosing to ignore the Kuchiki remark. Both Kuchiki remarks. "Nice to meet you. Your leg…?"

"There was a Gillian in West Twenty-Third," Nanao said grimly.

Rukia stared. "I hadn't heard about _that_."

"Only one, so far." Lisa shrugged. "I got careless, I should have been able to handle it. But it looks like the three of us are going to need to be in top form and as active as possible. So I need to recover fast — and Mashiro had better get ready to go, she's on call."

"She doesn't want to sit around Fourth but isn't supposed to be alone," Mashiro explained. "Keep her off that leg!"

"I'll do my best," Nanao said dryly, and then Mashiro was gone.

Lisa sighed and leaned back in the chair. "I have to hang out here, if I go back to the house Harribel-sama will probably _order_ me to stay off the leg."

"If you don't stay off the leg I'll _take_ you back to the house," Nanao said.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Hinamori-fukutaichō has more urgent things to discuss than my leg. Go ahead, I'll stay out of the way."

"And—"

"And off the leg."

That apparently settled, Nanao turned to Hinamori and Rukia. "Tea?" she asked. "Or is this going to be the sort of conversation that calls for the captain's sake?"

Rukia missed Hinamori's response in her shock at Nanao possibly drinking Kyōraku's sake, but they sat down for tea, so apparently it wasn't going to be that sort of conversation. Or else none of them could afford to be tipsy right now.

"So, I don't know if anyone has mentioned I've been given charge of the noble children," Hinamori said to Rukia. "My end goal is to get them all into the Academy, but some of them are young enough or sheltered enough or… shaken it's going to take a while."

"Isane said the noble clans had been purged," Rukia said.

"Yes. Some of them worse than others," Nanao said. "My cousins are actually all still alive, but… How are Noriyo and Katae?"

"Settling in, slowly," Hinamori said with a slightly more genuine smile. "Still upset about their mother, but I think the idea of becoming shinigami appeals to them, and they're fast learners."

Rukia wondered what the full story there was, but decided not to ask just now. She really didn't know anything about Nanao's family.

Hinamori continued, "Then there's Shihōin Yūshirō, who could probably become a shinigami right now and is willing to do so, but Tōsen-sama is not willing to let a Shihōin loose without a yoke." Which was understandable. "And I'm not comfortable putting a yoke on anyone so physically young while it's still so damaging… At least he's keeping the Fēngs from acting out."

Rukia pictured a pack of miniature Suì-Fēngs, and shivered.

"But speaking of acting out — the Kuchiki."

"I heard they were very hard hit — and I saw the estate…"

"Yes. The way things went down at Sixth didn't help. And there were two girls who were, um, taken by the Quinta, until Tōsen-sama decided they should be considered children — three, actually, but one of them isn't a Kuchiki — well, anyway." Hinamori rubbed her eyes. "I have a group of about fourteen Kuchiki, of various degrees, and Kuchiki retainers, who are refusing to cooperate, and now they've stopped eating. Could you try to persuade them? As Byakuya-san's sister?"

"…I'm adopted. From the Rukongai. Most of the family has never had much time for me."

"Even so," Hinamori said. "If I can't get through to them soon I… I think I'm going to have to give up on the older ones, to get them away from the younger ones, and… Just please try."

Rukia grimaced. "I can try."

The noble children were being held in — Eleventh Division? It did have an unusually large lockup. And it probably wasn't the first time someone had put a kido barrier on the barracks to keep anyone from getting out. And it would hammer home the loss of status.

"How badly damaged were the barracks?" Rukia asked as Hinamori adjusted the barrier to let them in.

"Not as badly as you might think! They mostly, um, ran out to fight. Which is not to say there isn't a lot of cleanup to do…"

Before they went in, Rukia tugged her kosode and shitagi down a bit, the better to expose the yoke. Maybe she should cut her hair.

Just inside the gate, Hinamori had to detour to break up a fight — or more accurately, drag a tiny Fēng off a crying barely-adolescent girl in a no-longer-long-sleeved kimono. Despite Hinamori's superior size, she still couldn't get the knife off the kid. Rukia was about to wade in to try to help when a dark-skinned boy shunpo'd to the scene and disarmed the child.

"We talked about this, Xun!" the boy said. "No attacked unprepared people."

"I wasn't attacking her," said the child sulkily. "I was helping her. Those sleeves are a good way to get killed."

"Second, I also told you we are treating Hinamori-san as our commanding officer!"

The child got even sulkier. "Yes, Shihōin-dono."

"Yūshirō-kun, or you'll get us both in trouble. Now go show the older boys how to run proper laps."

"Yes, Yūshirō-kun."

"You can let her go, Hinamori-san, she'll be good now. _Won't she._ "

"Yes, Yūshirō-kun."

"Thank you, Yūshirō-kun," Hinamori said. She lowered the Fēng child to the ground. "Please help Nakano-chan get set up again."

"Hai!"

Ah yes. Apparently before she'd been so rudely interrupted, the girl had been trying to clean bloodstains out of the courtyard. Why had she been attempting that in a furisode to begin with?

With that settled, Hinamori led Rukia quickly through the compound. "We only have the very youngest Fēngs. The older ones were officially Onmitsukidō, and either went down fighting or got away. I haven't been trusted with that information, but I expect there are some of each." She frowned. "I don't know why none of the ones who got away took the children with them…"

From what she knew of Suì-Fēng in particular and the Onmitsukidō in general, Rukia thought they should just be grateful the ones who went down fighting didn't take the children with them, but she didn't say that.

There was a reading lesson for very young children going on in the mess, led by a vaguely familiar young woman with bandages around her neck.

"Hosokawa-san," Hinamori said. "The third noble girl Nnoitra yoked, the first day, with Kuchiki Atsuko and Kuchiki Yorimi. I wouldn't say she's bouncing back, but she's… functional, and… I don't think being in a clan is helping the other two."

The Kuchiki, or at least the problem Kuchiki, were indeed in the lockup. Outside the bars, a little blond girl in a badly-fitting Academy uniform was holding a plate of rice balls and shouting at the inmates.

"I can't believe you, Kazuko! You're not the only one who's suffered! Your loss isn't bigger than everyone else's!"

"It's bigger than _yours_ ," retorted a girl of about the same age. "Your parents were already dead and you hated your guardian."

"Why, you—"

"And maybe you're happy to — _prostitute_ your clan, but—"

The blond girl shrieked in rage. Rukia caught her hand before she could hurl a rice ball. "Don't waste food," she said sternly.

"Laps, Rurichiyo-chan," Hinamori said. "Thank you for trying, but this is not your responsibility."

Rukia took the rice balls as the girl left, and turned to her… relatives.

She recognized maybe four of them. One of them she remembered because she'd thought he was very young to be so arrogant at one of Byakuya's birthday celebrations. Two of them — the ones who looked both older and particularly bad — she'd been stuck with when she'd been dragged off with "the rest of the young ladies" for some obscure reason at some other interminable clan gathering, but she wouldn't have been able to recall their names if Hinamori hadn't mentioned them earlier. The last one was the son of the Sixth's fourteenth seat, and he was the one to recognize her.

"…Rukia-dono?"

"Rukia-san," she corrected. "What's this I hear about you not eating, Daitarō?" She took a bite of the rice ball. It was plain, but not bad at all.

"Why am I not surprised the Rukon Princess is a traitor," scoffed Arrogant Boy.

"She has a yoke," whispered… either Atsuko or Yorimi.

"That's right, I'm not a traitor, I'm a slave," Rukia said. "But I'm also a shinigami. Which you all have to opportunity to become. If you take it instead of not eating." She took another bite of the rice ball. "I have done starvation and I do not recommend it."

They were starting to be very focused on the rice balls. Maybe this had been going on long enough for them to get seriously hungry.

"The honor of the Kuchiki Clan—"

" _Honor_ is the duty of, of clan leaders and shinigami and adults," Rukia said fiercely. The duty of people who could afford honor. "Your duty is to survive and grow up." She pegged the last of the rice ball at Arrogant Boy. "Speaking _as_ a member of the main family of the Kuchiki, I say you all have the duty to _live_ as honorably as you can, do you understand? You help each other, you don't help kill each other!"

She almost added that if they _insisted_ on killing each other, they should have the decency to do quickly and cleanly, not by fucking _starvation_ , but decided they'd take it the wrong way.

"Do you know who it benefits if you starve yourself now? No one. It benefits no one. And I'm frankly disgusted that you decided those little kids would do it." Some of them were barely more than toddlers! "Hinamori-san, please never hesitate to break up a family when the older ones are _starving_ the younger ones. You, send those kids out or I will take them out."

Hopefully that had arroganted Arrogant Boy into submission.

 **Shihōin Yoruichi**

After a week and a half of running around in reiatsu-suppressing disguise gigai, Yoruichi decided it was safe enough to contact Tessai. She made a call to a memorized number and left an inane message about a plane being late, and eight hours later, led Unohana to a particular street corner.

At precisely thirteen minutes to midnight, Tessai appeared out of a teleport kidō. "Yoruichi-dono. Unohana-taichō."

"Tsukabishi-san," Unohana replied.

Yoruichi fought the impulse to apologize for not bringing Kisuke back. "We shouldn't linger in the open."

Tessai nodded gravely.

Unsurprisingly, Unohana didn't bat an eye at the series of teleports which followed. She also didn't blink at the baseball Yoruichi snatched out of the air before it could hit her in the face.

"Good to see you, too, Jinta-kun," Yoruichi said, and dropped the gigai to the concrete floor.

"Where have you _been_?" Jinta snarled. "We thought you might be dead or captured or… stuff!"

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow at Tessai. "You couldn't rule anything out?"

"Intelligence-gathering has been more difficult than anticipated," Tessai said. "Aizen has been conducting most of his operations in a newly constructed… castle, in which we have no sensors. We haven't seen any of the captains or captain-class prisoners since they were taken there. We knew you weren't captured at the scene of the battle, but couldn't rule out your later apprehension."

Unohana shed her own gigai more decorously. "Do I understand correctly that you do have sensors in Seireitei?"

"Mostly we're leeching off Twelfth Division's sensors, but yes," Tessai said.

"How bad is it?" Yoruichi asked.

"The Gotei 13 is still functional — most of the divisions are intact." The look in his eyes said some were more intact than others, and Second was one of the others.

Unohana declined any offer of refreshment in favor of getting a look at her division, so Tessai led the way to a monitor room, through a hallway with bare electric lightbulbs and concrete walls, with brightly colored rugs on the floor. If Yoruichi recalled correctly, the bolthole had started off as some sort of mortal military bunker before it was abandoned, and then taken over by Kisuke and Tessai to be adapted into a retreat.

The monitor room was already occupied by Ururu and a couple of Kisuke's insane mod souls. Ururu was kneeling in front of a monitor showing a ceiling's-eye view of an office — Ukitake's office, she realized after a moment, with Kotsubaki sitting behind the desk writing a… casualty report, it looked like. The camera was ideally positioned for snooping at the paperwork.

"I see why Jūshirō prefers to conduct important business in Ugendō," Unohana murmured. "I'm sure I didn't sweep everything out of Fourth — can we see what's going on there?"

"Sure!" Jinta said, and body-checked Ururu out of the chair (she rolled to her feet easily and gave him a sad look). Jinta hammered on the keys for a while, changing the view to the senkaimon plaza (with arrancar standing guard), then somewhere in the sewers, then a featureless Seireitei street, then the Sixth Division captain's office (with a hole blown in the wall), then another street where you could see… yes, that was a _castle_ on Sōkyoku Hill, then burned rubble, then another street—

Tessai lifted Jinta out of the chair and took over the controls. "There are several cameras active in Fourth Division, but none in the captain's or vice-captain's offices. From what we have observed, your vice-captain has been left in command of the division. She does not seem to have been injured." He shifted back so they could see whatever he had brought up.

It was the Emergency Relief Station's reception and triage area, and it was busy. About a dozen injured shinigami were being seen to or waiting to be seen to. A third of them, Yoruichi noted, were in white kosode.

"What are they fighting, and what's with the uniforms?" she asked.

"Hollows in the Rukongai," Tessai replied. "They seem to be experiencing an unusual number of Hollows in the Rukongai. As for the uniforms… Two things. Look carefully at the neck of that blond man—"

"Kira Izuru," Unohana said. "Vice-captain of third."

The angle wasn't very good, and his clothing covered most of it, but Yoruichi could still see a strange pattern on his neck. "What is that?"

"They call it the yoke. We have several incidents recorded which… explain it better, but it's a method of forcing obedience."

Now wasn't _that_ a nightmare.

"Yoked shinigami wear white kosode, and are permitted to carry their zanpakutō even if they have shikai. Those with white kosode — and shikai-capable zanpakutō — who are not yoked are called sworn shinigami, and personally swore allegiance to Aizen."

"So the white kosode indicates they're considered trustworthy… for one reason or another," Yoruichi concluded. She watched Kira Izuru try to shake off a nurse and point her at a shinigami in standard shihakushō.

Unohana tsked. "He needs to let someone look at his shoulder. He seems to have recovered from the battle well, at—" She broke off, as Kira's sleeve rode up enough to expose an abraded wrist and finger-shaped bruises on his forearm. "What is that."

"Some of the yoked shinigami are being held as personal 'pets', by arrancar," Tessai said.

"Yeah, and Tessai won't let us just browse the cameras randomly because we _might_ see an arrancar fucking a shinigami up—" Jinta was cut off by a cuff to the head.

Unohana relaxed minutely as Kotetsu Isane entered the frame and waved Kotetsu Kiyone — sporting a bandaged on her head and a sling — on her way, before wading in to the new group of patients. She was yoke-free and in standard shihakushō.

Yoruichi envied her a little. No captain-class in sight meant no Kisuke, no Suì-Fēng, no Isshin, no Ichigo, no Shinji… "Any sign of the Visored? Or Inoue, Sado, and Ishida?"

"Yes," Tessai said. "Some of them. And — have you been watching the human news coverage of the Karakura disaster? A few people made it out of the town and back to the Living World, including Arisawa, Asano, and Kojima — and Karin and Yuzu."

 _That_ was more than Yoruichi had hoped for. It didn't do them much good in terms of defeating Aizen, though.

Unohana looked up from the screen. "We should probably go over everything in order."

"I'm eating something first," Yoruichi said. "And having a bath. That gigai felt grimy on the inside."


	7. Days 15-16

See first chapter for warnings. This chapter appearing here some days after AO3, because of my endless grudge match with the posting interface.

* * *

 **Unohana Retsu**

Unohana had spent most of the last four days scanning through recordings, trying to work out the status of, well, everyone in Fourth Division and all the senior officers of the Gotei. She was having better luck with Fourth Division, both in terms of finding out how they were and in terms of how they actually were. There was some bullying and harassment from both arrancar and sworn shinigami, but overall it looked like Tōsen had given the message that Fourth Division was to be allowed to do its duty unmolested. The senior officers… thanks to the damn castle, she couldn't even account for all the vice-captains, and a lot of the ones she could account for were in very sorry shape.

Yoruichi had been doing much the same, but with a somewhat broader focus — checking out clans and Onmitsukidō and other odds and ends. Most of results there were even grimmer. Most of the adult nobles who hadn't been slaughtered outright were imprisoned in the top levels of Muken. Their retainers who hadn't died defending them or gone over to Aizen were living precariously, at the mercy of any passing arrancar's whims.

She pointedly did _not_ linger over the Shihōin, even to laugh at the arrancar tangled up in their trap-field of an estate.

"Your brother is alive, isn't he?" Unohana asked eventually, after Yoruichi discarded another video of a kinsman.

"Hmm?" Yoruichi said, as if she had no idea what Unohana was talking about. "Oh, you mean the new clan head? Yes, it looks like they decided he counted as a kid. Seems fair." She shrugged casually. "He did a decent job telling people to scatter. I'm glad the clan's not in completely incompetent hands."

Unohana considered pushing further, but guessed Yoruichi had her reasons for not admitting any fondness for her clan or her brother. "Still no sign of Urahara-san?"

"Nothing after they went through that portal." Yoruichi bared her teeth at her monitor. "Fucking _castle_."

* * *

 **Kuchiki Byakuya**

Rukia was back in Seireitei and back on duty. That was — that had to be — the most important thing.

That was also the only thing Inoue-san had told him, but while Byakuya made a point of not speaking in the proving ground, he did listen, and most of the would-be sworn shinigami didn't bother trying to hide things. So he knew Shirogane Ginjirō had been pulled out of retirement to run Sixth, and that was… acceptable. He'd do right by the division.

What was not acceptable was how many officers of Sixth had apparently been harboring festering resentment of him and his origins, Renji and _his_ origins, or occasionally both. There had actually been a brief fistfight in the hall between an officer looking forward to taking his frustrations out on Byakuya but who respected Renji and an officer looking forward to taking his frustrations out on Renji but who respected Byakuya. Byakuya had wished he could kill _both_ of them, but especially the one who claimed to respect him. (Because even before he'd truly come to respect Renji himself, he would never have permitted disrespect of the vice-captain of Sixth. They should know that.)

No one had _told_ him anything about the Kuchiki clan, but he'd heard enough bits and pieces to work out they'd been targeted and casualties were very high. He hoped some of them had escaped. And that the obvious candidates for clan leadership in his absence had not, because in honesty any of them would be a disaster, especially in exile.

He considered what a mess several of his relatives would make of leading an exile rather than considering what was happening in the proving ground.

Byakuya was, sadly, now used to hearing the bell signifying the proving ground was closing for the day. The Exequias herded any remaining candidates out.

But instead of immediately dragging the prisoners back to the sekkiseki cells, the Exequias forced them all to kneel on the tables, facing the hall. It was not a comfortable position, especially as one of Byakuya's… assailants had chosen to spend a few minutes beating his buttocks and thighs with a knotted rope. At the time it had seemed like a good break, but now the bruises were making everything worse.

Aizen's reiatsu flared just enough to be uncomfortable, not enough to make anyone collapse off the table, and then Aizen himself appeared in the hall. He paced slowly between the cells, smiling mildly at his prisoners.

"Good afternoon."

No one replied.

"I must thank you for your diligent help in testing my sworn shinigami."

The silence this time was somehow more incredulous.

"It has been so helpful I have considered creating a new, higher level of demonstrated loyalty, for those who have… visited… with each of you."

That wouldn't have much of an effect on Byakuya — if instituted, it would be aimed at Komamura, Hitsugaya, maybe Ukitake. And Madarame, after he'd actually managed to kill someone in his cell, possibly with his teeth.

Byakuya wasn't quite sure what Aizen was hoping to accomplish, with Madarame.

"But that is for the future. For now, it occurred to me that I still haven't explained to you what I meant when I said I needed you all broken to the yoke. I thought you might appreciate a demonstration."

Balancing 'getting the information' against 'listening to Aizen', Byakuya would rather pass. Clearly that wasn't an option.

Aizen held up a sphere of shaped reishi and walked back and forth to let everyone see it. "This is the compressed form of the kidō construct called a yoke. I wanted to bring someone already yoked to demonstrate, but I fear my Espada can get very possessive of their pets' time, and the most readily available option is… not the best for demonstration purposes."

"No shit, Aizen-sama, I spend most of the time ordering him to eat," a vaguely familiar voice said. "Hey, go wave hi to all the prisoners."

A minute later there was a burst of profanity from Renji, which cut off with a choking noise. He was probably actually being choked.

A minute after that, Kurosaki Ichigo stood in front of Byakuya's cell, waving stiffly. His eyes were so dull Byakuya wasn't sure he was actually seeing anything around him. His gray prisoner robe was pulled down far enough to expose his shoulders, showing off the… thing.

It looked like it was embedded in his flesh — the skin around it was irritated enough — and it almost seemed to be _moving_. The neck of the robe was bloodstained. He moved on a minute later, before Byakuya could come up with anything to say.

"As Grimmjow said, most of this isn't the yoke," Aizen said. "It doesn't generally make the subject so… unaware."

"I can fuck him through the floor and he barely fights," Grimmjow grumbled.

Byakuya didn't allow himself to flinch. There was another quickly-choked-off burst of profanity from Renji.

"Thank you, Grimmjow, that will be all."

"Hai, Aizen-sama. Come on, we're leaving."

After a moment, Aizen said, "Such a shame. He used to be so entertaining."

No one said anything. What could they say?

"Of course, Ichigo-kun lost his powers trying to fight your war, so his situation is not exactly comparable." He paused, and there were some noises eventually revealed to be caused by the Exequias dragging out Sasakibe — and Renji.

Renji looked bad, bruised and bleeding and exhausted and unable to walk. His hair was loose, which contributed to the impression of being at the end of his rope — and, Byakuya noted, there were some hanks that were noticeably shorter than others. Apparently Renji had also been visited by hair-cutting souvenir seekers. But he could still glare at the Exequias and at Aizen, or at least at Aizen's feet. Sasakibe, the brief time he was in Byakuya's range of view, just looked dead-eyed.

Aizen handed off a glowing… potential yoke to an arrancar — Ulquiorra, Byakuya thought. Ulquiorra took it with a slight bow and approached Renji. Renji tried to struggle, but Ulquiorra still slammed the kidō ball against his neck.

There was a bang and a flash of light, and Renji yelled, but when the Espada stepped back, there was nothing on Renji's neck but the bruises that had been there before, and maybe some sunburn. Renji sagged in the Exequias's hold, gasping.

"Subjects with bankai will instinctively fight off a yoke," Aizen said. "Even with depleted reiatsu, they have to consciously allow it or it won't take properly." He produced another glowing sphere to Ulquiorra, who moved out of Byakuya's sight. "Unless, of course…" There was a short scream. "He is quite thoroughly broken already." Aizen followed Ulquiorra. "Go… wave to all the prisoners."

Sasakibe looked even worse with the yoke burned into his neck and shoulders. The blood oozing from it was almost unnoticeable with all the other injuries, but the pain lines were carved more deeply into his face. He staggered from cell to cell, waving even more stiffly than Ichigo had. His eyes were less vacant, but more — broken.

Aizen tsked. "Bleeding even on a captain-class. I see I _am_ going to need to push for the redesign. Well, take it off him for now, Ulquiorra — you don't need to be spending your time ordering _him_ to eat."

And he chuckled.

* * *

 **Kurosaki Ichigo**

Nothing mattered.

 _"I'm done with him now, Grimmjow. Get whatever use you like out of him — short of killing him, there may be call for him in the future."_

Nothing mattered.

 _"Wait here. I'll be back for you after I set something up. Not going to ask what? Well, I guess you'll have to find out."_

Nothing mattered.

 _"Oh, fuck this."_

Ichigo was forced out of his fugue when Grimmjow threw him in a koi pond. The need to breathe summoned awareness, and then he was face-to-face with a startled fish, and then he was sitting up and flailing and gasping and spluttering and Grimmjow was dragging him out of the water.

"That's better," Grimmjow said. "You weren't listening to me."

Ichigo coughed and spat out water, and looked around — this was… somewhere in Seireitei. It was night, but he could still see Sōkyoku Hill, with — Aizen's castle…

"No sulking!" Grimmjow snapped. He grabbed Ichigo and sonido'd to… some street in the Seireitei, somewhere. Ichigo had never really worked out the layout. Right in front of a house. "Now, you have been putting up the shittiest fights imaginable. I could probably get more of a fight out of the healing woman."

Inoue. He'd seen Inoue, sometime — she'd been crying… "You didn't…"

Grimmjow laughed. "I'd rather not get my dick torn off by Ulquiorra, thanks, shinigami."

"I'm not a shinigami," Ichigo said dully.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Grimmjow shoved him. "You're pathetic. But I figure I can get more of a fight out of you, and then you can get your powers back and give me a _good_ fight, if I get you properly motivated."

There was a crash from the house, and an indistinct shout.

Grimmjow laughed. "Think that's our cue, shinigami." He grabbed Ichigo's arm and bounded into the house, without taking his shoes off. "You give me a real fight, and I put a stop to _this_!"

It took a moment for Ichigo to register what was going on, besides the room being trashed and several arrancar wrestling on the floor. No, wrestling something — someone — one of them had Rukia's hands pinned above her head, another was holding her ankles, a third was ripping her clothes open and bending to bite her breast—

" _Get away from her!_ " Ichigo roared, and tore free of Grimmjow to hurl himself at the second arrancar. If Rukia's feet were free she could at least kick—

Grimmjow was suddenly in front of him, smirking. "No, you fight _me_ , and I stop them. That's how it works."

Ichigo went for his throat.

As it turned out, Ichigo could indeed put up more of a fight when 'properly motivated', and he kept fighting for longer. But he was still without powers, and it still ended the same as the other times.

"That'll do for now, shinigami," Grimmjow said, getting off him. Then, to someone else, "Put him in with the girl."

Ichigo tried to walk, but couldn't. The fraccion dragged him somewhere — he wasn't sure where, his head was spinning — and then dropped him, and then Rukia was bending over him.

"Ichigo!"

"M'fine," he slurred. "M'fine. Rukia… you…?" She was wearing a yukata (dark blue, not a prisoner robe), so he couldn't see any marks on her body besides the yoke.

"Baka!" she said, and tried to smile. "They left me alone after you — started fighting."

But how long had she been here alone before that? "Rukia—"

"Be quiet and let me heal you, baka," she said. "I'm fine. I'm an active shinigami, so they have to leave me intact enough to go to work. And Grimmjow-sama took me out of a — situation with a lower-ranked Espada which could have become unpleasant. And put me here to motivate you, which is what I should be doing anyway. So I have no complaints!"

He sort of wanted to ask what she considered unpleasant _compared to Grimmjow's fraccion_ , but guessed she wouldn't answer, at least not right now. "I don't need healing, I'm — it doesn't matter—"

Rukia grabbed his face and looked him in the eye, her voice more serious than he'd ever heard it. "Ichigo. Your sisters are alive."

Alive?

Yuzu and Karin were alive?

How was that possible?

Rukia continued, in a more normal voice, "A few people from Karakura Town made it out into the Rukongai before the key was created, with help from Matsumoto and, um, Kuramadani-san. Matsumoto and Ise-fukutaichō sent them back to the Living World before… before Seireitei fell."

Some people had made it out?

His sisters had made it out.

He sat bolt upright, and then immediately doubled over bleeding and coughing and couldn't ask the questions he desperately wanted to. Rukia clouted him on the back of the head. Gently.

"I talked to Kuramadani about it. They had a car, and drove around a bit looking for people. Don Kanonji — it was his car I think — Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, Chizuru, um, it sounded like Ogawa and Kunieda from school, I think Tatsuki's mother, and maybe Keigo's sister — and at least one more kid Matsumoto detoured for, I'm not sure who that is — I can show you what I wrote down."

That was… good. That was good. "And they…?"

"Ise-fukutaichō had Jidanbō carry the car to the senkaimon, and had a reishi converter set up, and sent them back to the world of the living close but not too close to Karakura. And I saw them on TV when I was in the living world for about a day and a half — they made it fine."

"Tatsuki was there," he murmured, half to himself. "And Mizuiro." Between them they should be able to deal with almost anything. "And Don Kanonji's an idiot, but…" But he meant well and he had resources. He wouldn't let anyone go hungry.

They'd be okay.

They'd be okay.

Ichigo didn't realize he'd started shaking until Rukia pulled him into a hug. Then he just clung to her robe and tried not to cry, until the shaking stopped.

Karin and Yuzu were alive, and somewhere far away from here.

"We should—" he started, and broke off when his voice cracked. "We should probably… not advertise too much, that Yuzu and Karin are alive, just in case—" Ichigo broke off again. "My father. I don't know the whole story — or really any of the story — but my father's a shinigami, and — _he_ knows, that my father's a shinigami, so he knows Yuzu and Karin — may not be quite normal, and if _he_ knows they're alive—"

"Your father's a— No, never mind, point taken," Rukia said. "Um. I haven't been keeping it secret, I'm sorry. Besides Ise-fukutaichō and Kuramadani, Hanatarō knows, and he told Sado and Ishida—"

"We can just be careful from now on — wait, Chad and Ishida are okay?"

"Sado and Ishida are in Twelfth, but Szayelaporro is in Hueco Mundo trying to wet-dry vacuum up Kurotsuchi-taichō, so they're okay for now."

Ichigo tried to remember who Szayelaporro was, then decided someone would tell him later if it was important. He knew Twelfth Division wasn't a good place to be stuck, anyway. "At least they're alive. Do you know…" He trailed off, not sure what he wanted to ask.

"Lisa, Hiyori, and Mashiro are in Seireitei — they've been yoked by the Tercera, but seem to be doing all right. Hanatarō is fine. Fifth Seat Ayasegawa is… is alive and sarcastic. Everyone with bankai is still being held in the castle, so I haven't seen Renji or nii-sama or any of the other captains."

Ichigo frowned. "I… feel kinda like I saw them. While I was up there." Shame he hadn't been paying attention to anything at the time. He sort of remembered the red of Renji's hair, with bars in the way? "Sorry. It's gone. I was… out of it."

"I noticed," Rukia said, but she thumped him gently on the head, which took the sting out of it. "Um, let's see… Third Seat Madarame has bankai, apparently, so he's in the castle. No one knows where Yachiru is. And they took Matsumoto to the castle even though she _doesn't_ have bankai. And the Shibas are still out in the Rukongai somewhere — they're probably the safest nobles there are, right now."

Karin and Yuzu were alive, and Orihime was alive, and Sado was alive, and Ishida was alive, and Tatsuki and Keigo and Mizuiro were alive, and Rukia was alive, and he had to believe the prisoners at the castle were alive.

So things could be made right, somehow. He'd make things right, somehow. He leaned against Rukia's shoulder and just — breathed.

"All right," Rukia said eventually. "You need a bath and a change of clothes. You smell."

"I had a bath in a koi pond an hour ago," Ichigo grumbled. He reluctantly accepted Rukia's help getting up, but the healing had been enough that he could walk on his own. It would have been easier in a less traditional building with more solid walls to lean on. "Where are we?"

"A house that belonged to a minor offshoot of the Kyōraku clan," Rukia said. "Distant cousins of Kyōraku-taichō. They fled to the main clan estate when the castle appeared."

Ichigo warily eyed a couple of fraccion, but they seemed more interested in the jug they were passing back and forth than him. "Are they likely to want the place back?"

"They're likely to be dead," Rukia said briskly. "Tōsen-sama targeted the clans in particular."

"Oh." Did that mean the Kuchiki—? Well, he'd ask her later.

"Here we are." Rukia slid open the door to a well-appointed traditional bathing room. "Be sure not to reopen any of your wounds!"

He didn't take time to soak, but he did scrub off as well as he could (starting several injuries bleeding again, to Rukia's vocal displeasure). Then he toweled off (re-reopening the injuries), submitted to Rukia's overenthusiastic bandaging, and shrugged into a too-large robe that looked like it had belonged to somebody's grandmother.

They returned slowly to the room where they'd been before. Again, Ichigo kept an eye on the fraccion.

"Nakeem and Di Roy," Rukia said in an undertone. "They won't start anything if the others aren't around. Nakeem follows Shawlong's lead, and Di Roy knows Nakeem might not back him up. Yylfordt and Di Roy or Edrad and Di Roy would be more likely to be a problem."

Ichigo blinked at her. "None of those names mean a thing to me."

"You may want to learn them. Oh, good, they brought another futon. Hopefully they'll get you some better clothes. And food, I'll get some food…"

His head barely hit the futon before he fell asleep.

* * *

Ichigo woke up when Rukia let go of his hand.

He didn't remember her _taking_ his hand, but when he opened bleary eyes he discovered that she'd laid out the second futon to within arm's length of his, and his arm was still hanging out into the gap. He could hear Rukia moving quietly around the room. Getting ready to go to work, he guessed? The room door slid open and shut.

He could also hear birds, out the window. And some truly thunderous snoring from elsewhere in the house. Probably one of the fraccion — he really should try to learn their names at least.

His sisters were alive. His friends were alive.

The door slid open and shut again. "Ichigo, wake up."

"I'm awake." He opened his eyes and sat up. Rukia was wearing a weird, half-white shihakushō. "You have to go to work, right?"

"Yes — and Thirteenth is going out today, so I may be back late — but first I need to check in at Fourth — everyone with a yoke checks in every day, because they injure people even though they supposedly aren't meant to." She gave him a critical look. "Without your powers you don't have much of a defense against it, either…"

Oh, right. The yoke. The skin around the raised pattern hurt at the least touch, and it bled freely whenever the yoke activated, but at this point Ichigo was so used to it he barely noticed unless Grimmjow was giving orders. "Yeah, I guess… Should I go with you?"

"That was what I was thinking. We can eat there, too. Nakeem is going to come along to walk you back."

"…Which one is Nakeem again?"

Nakeem turned out to be the big one with the mask fragment covering half his face, vertically. The other awake fraccion was a skinny blond one called Ill-something. Ichigo noted that Rukia carefully stayed out of Ill-something's reach, but wasn't quite as wary of Nakeem. Both fraccion denied knowing of any better clothes for Ichigo to wear than the too-large robe he had on, but did find him some sandals.

"Yylfordt," Rukia said just as they were putting their shoes on, "do you happen to know whether your brother is still in Hueco Mundo?"

"Ha! Yes, and good riddance." Ill-something spat on the floor. "I hope he's gone another year."

"Don't we all." Once outside, Rukia clarified, "Yylfordt's brother is the Octava. Szayelaporro."

He remembered that long, stupid name. "That's the one you said had Chad and Ishida, or sort of had them, right?"

"Yes. He has Twelfth, and Twelfth has them, and according to Hanatarō he's seemed really interested in experimenting on Ishida whenever he's come to Seireitei. But he's still mostly stuck in Hueco Mundo trying to catch Kurotsuchi-taichō with a wet-dry vacuum cleaner."

Fucking mad scientists.

The walk to Fourth Division dragged, and Ichigo really wished for shunpo, especially when he realized they were — he was, mostly — being stared at. He tried harder not to limp, but he really was beat to hell.

He wondered if Grimmjow had a plan to make him get his powers back beyond fighting him a lot (and raping him when he lost).

He wondered who the hell had come up with the street layout in Seireitei, it didn't make any fucking sense.

He wondered if the staring people knew what Grimmjow was doing to him.

"Who are we likely to run into there?" he asked suddenly. "You said the captains were all still gone…"

"Everyone with bankai is still gone, yes. The three Visored will probably be there. Ayasegawa-san, Kira-fukutaichō, Ōmaeda-fukutaichō… I don't think you'd know the others."

Ichigo wasn't sure he knew the two vice-captains listed. He hadn't spent all that long in Seireitei, before… "Was Kira the one with sixty-nine drawn on his face?"

"No, that's Hisagi-fukutaichō. Kira-fukutaichō is blond, and usually has hair over one eye?"

"Oh, right, the emo vice-captain." He ignored Rukia's facepalm. "And Ōmaeda was… wait, he was Suì-Fēng's, right? The really big arrogant guy?"

"Not quite so arrogant, now," Rukia said with a grimace. "Most of his family was killed. Those three usually look pretty bad, don't comment on it."

"I'm not exactly in a position to throw stones right now." Rukia's healing kidō had helped a lot, but she'd focused on serious injuries rather than, well, visible evidence of being beat to hell.

"I suppose not. Oh, that reminds me — Hinamori-fukutaichō asked to remind Ōmaeda-fukutaichō to visit his sister…"

"Didn't you say his family was killed?"

"All but his youngest sister. Noble _children_ are supposed to be being re-educated, rather than… all the things they're doing to noble adults. So it's just him and Mareyo-chan left, and apparently he hasn't been to see Mareyo-chan."

Ichigo considered that. The rest of the family dead, the city conquered, enslaved to an arrancar and 'looking bad'? He wouldn't be very eager to see anyone, either. But it _wasn't about him_. "Well, I don't blame him, but he needs to get over himself."

Rukia smirked at him. "Maybe _you_ should talk to him, older brother to older brother."

"…Maybe I should."

* * *

 **Ayasegawa Yumichika**

In the end, the Sexta's fraccion refused to allow Ichigo to accompany Ōmaeda to make sure he did his duty as elder brother. Instead, he insisted Ichigo had to return to the house to get started with "things", whatever that meant. Best case scenario was probably repairs on the house. According to Findorr and Ggio, Grimmjow, his fraccion, and his pet — now pets — were constantly fighting inside the house and destroying things, but Tōsen had prohibited him from just moving to another house and wrecking that one, too. The other arrancar seemed to find this hilarious. Worst-case scenario… Well, it had been pretty clear Grimmjow had let his fraccion have Rukia, but considering his obsession with Ichigo he might not want to share. Either way Ichigo was young an inexperienced enough Yumichika felt a _little_ sorry for him, not that Ichigo would like hearing that, and so he offered to escort Ōmaeda to see his sister himself, so Ichigo could be satisfied when he was hustled off by what's-his-name.

Then Kotetsu Isane got into it, offering help to make sure Ōmaeda didn't show any sign of what Baraggan and the fraccion had been putting him through. (Which was, Yumichika would like to note, not as bad as what they were putting Yumichika or Kira through, but Ōmaeda was taking it worse.) Furthermore, she said she should come check on the children. Ōmaeda couldn't very well back out after _that_.

They stopped at Second first, to make sure there weren't any overnight fires (real or figurative) and for Isane to check on a few Second Division shinigami who'd skipped their follow-up appointments. It was midmorning before Ōmaeda, Isane, and Yumichika arrived at Eleventh.

Yumichika hadn't gone by Eleventh since he went to collect his things. He prided himself on not being sentimental, but seeing the division barracks empty and knowing the people who should be there were mostly dead or traitors had… stung. In a strictly non-sentimental way. Maki-Maki's account of the fall of Eleventh Division — or at least what he'd seen of it before being dragged off to identify nobles — had been… disturbing.

He was slightly curious what Hinamori Momo and a bunch of children had done with it.

"Have you visited before?" he asked Isane.

"A few times. We have an unseated officer there all the time, since we are dealing with a number of people attempting physical training for the first time and they aren't supposed to leave the compound. But there are a few recovering injuries there we like to check on — the yoke victims, mostly. And making sure no one else is trying a hunger strike."

"A _hunger strike_?" Ōmaeda said. "Whose idea was _that_? They didn't bring Mareyo-chan into it, did they?"

"I think it was a strictly Kuchiki thing. Hinamori-san had to bring Rukia-san in to get them to stop."

Yumichika could only imagine Rukia's reaction to _that_.

They got to Eleventh (should they still be calling it that?) just as Hinamori was leaving, frantically slicking back hair which had escaped her braid. (She seemed to have abandoned the buns entirely. Yumichika wondered why.) "Ōmaeda-san, I'm so glad you're here! Ask Hosokawa-san or Yūshirō-kun if you can't find Mareyo-chan. And Isane-san, if you could check on Atsuko-san and Yorimi-san — I'm so sorry, I've just been summoned up the Hill—" And she shunpo'd away.

Isane shook her head. "She is running herself ragged."

Hosokawa-san, Yumichika realized shortly after she met them, was the non-Kuchiki one of the girls Nnoitra had briefly yoked. She had a scarf covering her neck, but he recognized the hair, and she looked older than most of the others present. Also Ōmaeda couldn't seem to meet her eyes.

"Ōmaeda-fukutaichō — I hope you're here to see Mareyo-chan?"

"I — yes, I — is she all right?"

"…Distraught. Grieving. We told her that you've been very busy defending Seireitei from more attacks, but if she's listened to Ise Katae she might have some awkward questions…"

Yumichika drifted away, trusting that Hosokawa-san was prepared to shepherd Ōmaeda through potential "awkward questions". He could feel a familiar reiatsu amidst all the untrained, uncontrolled presences bouncing around the division compound. Not in the practice hall… not in the courtyard…

He located Maki-Maki in the mess kitchen, making stew with the assistance of three girls and a boy. "Aramaki-san! I wondered where you'd gone!"

"Sssshhhh!" Maki-Maki said frantically. "If Kasumiōji-chan finds out I'm here she'll try to stab me again."

"Some of the nobles you led arrancar to are holding grudges? Imagine that."

Maki-Maki nodded glumly. "I told Hinamori-fukutaichō I'd help train the noble, uh, kids if she let me stay here, and I was thinking of physical training, but a third of them hate me so I keep doing chores instead."

"Most of us couldn't keep up with an Eleventh Division teacher," said one of the girls. "And the ones who could are all Fēngs, and Shihōin, and _you_ couldn't keep up with _them_."

"…Thanks, Noriyo-chan."

Baby Fēngs. Terrifying. "I don't know, Noriyo-chan," Yumichika drawled, "Maki-Maki is used to being beaten up by small children."

(Noriyo gave him a very unimpressed look. He bet she was one of Nanao's cousins. He really did need to find out if Kira had any living relatives…)

Maki-Maki scowled at him for a moment, then his expression shifted to something more anxious. "Do you know… what happened to the vice-captain?"

"…No. Or the captain, for that matter, although supposedly all the captains are prisoners."

"Oh."

It was hard to picture Kenpachi being captured, even for Yumichika, and he'd always been… not a skeptic about their captain, but a cynic. No one was really undefeatable.

(He hadn't had any assurance of Ikkaku even being _alive_. He thought he was, because most people seemed to be, but he wasn't _sure_.)

There was a moment of silence, even the kids stopping talking to watch them.

"So I heard your sword—" Maki-Maki started.

Yumichika shoved his head into the stewpot. The children shrieked in protest — probably more for the stew's sake than Maki-Maki's — and Noriyo-chan chased him out of the kitchen with a ladle. Yumichika was evidently also way too accustomed to being beat up by small children; he let her.

* * *

 **Hinamori Momo**

There'd been a girl a year behind Hinamori in the Academy who'd been quite good at juggling, leading to a very brief juggling craze before some upperclassmen set a ceiling on fire trying to juggle flaming brands and got the whole thing banned. Renji had broken a window somehow. Kira got up to four balls before they had to stop. Hinamori had managed three, for short periods of time.

Now she was juggling regular vice-captain's duties at Fifth, regular captain's duties at Fifth, supervision, training, and caregiving of the formerly-noble children, additional "trusted lieutenant" duties as Tōsen assigned them, redesigning the yoke, and fighting Hollows in the Rukongai as one of relatively few non-disarmed vice-captain-class officers, and she was dropping balls _everywhere_. Her Third Seat had practically taken over at Fifth. She hadn't noticed the Kuchiki hunger strike until Hosokawa told her about it, Yūshirō had designed most of the training curriculum, and Aramaki-san was making sure the compound didn't fall apart logistically. She was _sure_ Hisagi was covering for her with Tōsen. She'd almost gotten seriously hurt or killed four times, and while using your backup was good constantly having to be rescued by your backup was not. And it had been a week before she'd more than glanced at the yoke design theory.

(All of those glances had involved opening the notes, trying to read the notes, cringing, and closing the notes, like they would magically become easier to understand if she waited.)

She couldn't ask Nanao or Isane. She could ask Kira, but Kira's time wasn't his own. She managed to catch him in his office in Third a few times. Kuchiki Rukia was more available, and could work with her at the former Eleventh, but she knew less about kidō _design_ even than Hinamori did.

She'd made basically no progress a week after that when Aizen summoned her to discuss it.

"That's all right, Hinamori-kun," he said kindly. "I didn't really give you all the tools you would need, did I?"

For a moment Hinamori imagined him handing off this task to someone _actually qualified to do it_ , but it didn't last.

"How could I expect you to modify something you've never even had a chance to try to execute?"

She stomped down on the reflexive horror enough to _think_ about that. Would that help? It might very well help. Would it help enough? She doubted it. "That would be helpful, Aizen-sama, but my lack of experience in kidō design—"

"Perhaps a yoke on Ise-fukutaichō?" Aizen suggested mildly.

"I — no, please, Aizen-sama, she's very busy already — I — I'll manage." Somehow.

He smiled benevolently. "A little practical experience should help. Loly, Menoly, if you would retrieve the prepared subject…"

Oh, no. She'd been hoping to get permission to practice on — she didn't even know, but someone would volunteer, Isane would help her find someone — but a subject picked by Aizen? Very unlikely to be a volunteer. She'd be lucky if they weren't fighting. She'd be lucky if it was someone the yoke wouldn't _injure_.

What if it was Yūshirō? What if it was one of the children even less able to tolerate a yoke? She'd feel a lot better if she were sure Aizen actually wanted her to succeed…

Aizen was talking again. "I don't mind if you call me Aizen-taichō, Hinamori-kun."

"I don't want to be disrespectful, Aizen-sama."

"Please do call me Aizen-taichō, Hinamori-kun. Doesn't it remind you of simpler days?"

That was the problem. Mostly all she felt around Aizen anymore was a sort of sick terror. He was just so alien and awful and perilous it was easy to see him as something entirely unrelated to the captain she had idolized. But sometimes he'd hide the physical signs of the hōgyoku, and he'd _smile_ at her, and her heart would flip-flop, and she felt all the old admiration flooding back, along with _fury_ because — because—

She just really didn't like it when he pretended not to be… what he was. But defying him wasn't an option. "If that's what you prefer, Aizen-t-taichō."

"That wasn't so hard, was it? Loly, do you have the subject?"

Let it not be one of the children. Please let it not be one of the children.

"Yes, Aizen-sama!" Chains clanked, so at least it probably wasn't—

Oh.

No.

Hitsugaya was chained hand and foot, and his hair was dripping wet, though his plain gray robe was mostly dry. He looked exhausted and sullenly angry. Hinamori couldn't see any change in his expression when he looked at her. He didn't say anything.

"Hitsugaya-kun," Aizen said pleasantly. "I've called you here to help Hinamori-kun with a project I've assigned her."

Hitsugaya just glared.

"Be respectful to Aizen-sama!" Loly shouted, shaking him by the collar.

"Don't bruise the neck, Loly," Aizen admonished mildly. Then, over Loly's apologies, "Hitsugaya-kun, I hope you aren't going to sabotage Hinamori-kun's practice. It's a very difficult assignment and it's meant to help people."

Hitsugaya's jaw tightened, but then he glanced at Hinamori, and closed his eyes for a moment. "What — do you want me to do."

"Just kneel down, and do what Hinamori-kun tells you to," Aizen said.

Hitsugaya got that teeth-grinding 'why do I have to put up with this' look on his face, but he went to his knees, and didn't make any protest when Loly pulled his robe down off his shoulders. It bunched around his cuffed hands and pinioned his arms to his sides.

"Is that a workable canvas, Hinamori-kun?"

"H-hai, Aizen-t-taichō." Hitsugaya flinched. At least this explained Aizen's sudden nostalgia for simpler days. "H-hitsugaya-kun, this m-may be painful, b-but please try not t-to move." He didn't say anything, just stared at the floor, and she looked at — to, at least — Aizen. "I'll — try to apply the non-compressed yoke, keyed to — to me."

He made a 'go ahead' gesture.

The bakudō incantations, the fortified ink pattern, the reiatsu weaving — she proceeded slowly and carefully, pausing to consult the notes whenever she could. Everything seemed to go just as it was supposed to, until it came time for the final seal. She was about to place it when Hitsugaya's reiatsu — as low as it was! — suddenly flared, and broke the whole thing to bits. Hinamori staggered back, afterimages burning in her eyes and her hand stinging with frostburn.

Hitsugaya slumped all the way forward, until his forehead was resting on the floor, and panted.

"Hitsugaya-kun," Aizen said, so very mildly. "I did say that individuals with bankai had to consciously submit to the yoke. If you aren't going to cooperate with Hinamori-kun's practice, why should I keep her around for it?"

That… didn't make any sense at all, considering Hinamori was the whole reason any of this was going on. She could just try on someone not a captain—

"No!" Hitsugaya blurted. Like he thought — like he thought Aizen was threatening to do something to her if she couldn't. "I just — wasn't expecting that. I didn't understand what — I didn't know what to do. I can do better." He shot a frantic look at Hinamori. She had no idea what her expression must look like.

"You want me to give you another chance?" Aizen asked silkily. "What do you say?"

Hitsugaya swallowed hard. "Please. Aizen-sama."

"Very good. Hinamori-kun, please try again."

Tears stinging in her eyes, Hinamori obeyed. This time it went on and stayed on.

She already knew what to expect in terms of physical damage, but it was still worse to see the reddening, sunburnt-looking skin when _she_ had done it. And there was blood, too.

(Shirō-chan was Not Crying. He was really good at it, but she could still tell when he was doing it.)

…Blood even without any orders being given, which was rare in vice-captains and the Visored didn't seem to get it at all — shouldn't the effects be less severe yet on a captain? And it was still constricting — and that wasn't anger turning Hitsugaya's face red—

"I think you overpowered the bakudō," Aizen said kindly. "You'd better take it off before it strangles him."

She hoped it would hurt less coming off, but if so, it didn't look like it. The weave seemed to _tear_ out of skin, and Hitsugaya failed to totally stifle a cry. His neck and shoulders were left marked with a labyrinth of tiny cuts and sunburn everywhere, with deep pressure marks around the front of the throat where the yoke wasn't supposed to go.

"That was an easy mistake to make," Aizen said. "You need to hold back more with the bakudō, and confine it to the framework set up with the ink. Why don't you try again?"

"I…" That wasn't optional, nothing was ever optional anymore. "Hai, Aizen-t-taichō, b-but, um…" She looked down, and tried to see only cuts and burns and ligature marks, not thin shoulders trembling with exhaustion and probably pain. "Um, for me to, to apply it…"

"Oh, that's not a very good canvas, is it," Aizen said. "I apologize. Just a moment."

Reality rippled, and the cuts and burns disappeared. At the same time, Hitsugaya screamed and collapsed — Hinamori barely prevented him from cracking his head on the floor.

Aizen chuckled warmly. "I do need to practice my healing, don't I, Hinamori-kun. Wait until he wakes up to begin, his reiatsu will fight it off if he's unconscious."

It didn't take too long for Tōshirō to come to, and he silently positioned himself as Hinamori directed, staring resolutely at the floor. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

The second time was better than the first time, because she didn't overload the bakudō and almost strangle Tōshirō, and also worse, because Tōshirō seemed to have burned through his stoicism and his breathing was obviously ragged and pained. But at least the yoke went on correctly, and came off with no more trouble than the first time.

"Very good, Hinamori-kun," Aizen said. "I'm sure that's given you a good foundation to work on modifications." And he _patted her head_. (She hadn't even seen him leave the throne.) Hand still poised above her, he asked, "And what do you say, Hitsugaya-kun?"

What? Tōshirō hadn't even been a participant, more a prop, why would he say anything—?

"Please," Tōshirō rasped, eyes fixed on Aizen's hand. "Aizen-sama."

Aizen laughed and patted Hinamori's head again. "Back to work, Hitsugaya-kun. Loly will take you there." And then, right in her ear, too quietly for anyone but Hinamori to hear, "He breaks for you so beautifully."

Hinamori flinched violently away, but when she blinked, Aizen was back in his throne.

"Do return for more practice whenever you need it," he said pleasantly. "Or for a demonstration of your proposed modifications when you get that far."

She backed out of the room, and ran.

* * *

 **Ichimaru Gin**

His viewing windows changed on their own a lot — well, probably more changed according to Aizen's whims. He didn't usually have one into Aizen's throne room, so he knew Aizen would be expecting to discuss whatever was happening there when he showed up that night. Gin was tempted to refuse to pay attention out of spite, but the little drama with Hinamori and Hitsugaya really was quite good. And so efficient! You could practically see both of them crumbling. Hinamori disappeared from the available windows, but when she showed up again in Tōsen's office hours later, she was not only still pale but red-eyed. Hitsugaya was taken back to the proving ground and stared blankly into space until one of the sworn-shinigami-to-be — apparently trying to collect the whole set — got annoyed and decided to _make_ him pay attention.

Of course, not long after Hitsugaya got back from mind games with Aizen, Komamura was dragged off for tea time with Tōsen. Komamura seemed really disproportionately upset about it. Gin wouldn't have wanted to listen to Tōsen try to convert him to his point of view, either, but it had to be better than listening to the proving ground. Even Gin wasn't very keen on listening to the proving ground, and he only cared about one person in it.

(Aizen never brought up Rangiku's predicament — he was waiting for Gin to crack and do it, Gin guessed. He'd certainly been watching particularly closely the day after Gin got the window showing Luppi mauling Rangiku — much less funny than when it was happening to Hitsugaya. The trouble was Gin wasn't sure whether bringing it up would make things better or worse for Rangiku.)

The only other interesting event of the day was Kurosaki Ichigo wandering around Seireitei a bit. He looked _much_ better than he had even twenty-four hours earlier. Grimmjow might or might not be able to get Ichigo's powers back, but his re-moralizing scheme was clearly a dazzling success — more than Gin would have expected from just 'fight or the fraccion molest Kuchiki'. That could have gotten him moving, sure, but now he looked _alive_. Gin reluctantly decided not to ask about it, just in case Aizen _hadn't_ noticed.

…He was getting a cramp. He wished he could shift position, but being melded to a stone chair was rather unforgiving.

Aizen arrived to chat after dark, when the captains were tucked back into their sekkiseki cells and the day's Rukongai patrols were dragging back to their barracks.

Gin smiled at him. Really it would have been harder _not_ to smile. "Aizen-taichō."

"Gin," Aizen said. "Tell me, whose idea _was_ it to have a captain who could liquify?"

* * *

 **Pesche Guatiche**

Pesche had been with Nelliel-sama in Las Noches. He'd had run-ins with all sorts of other arrancar, encountered Espada, seen Aizen-sama. So when he said Kusajishi Yachiru was rapidly climbing the ranks of the most terrifying people he had ever encountered, that _meant something_.

It wasn't all bad. It had taken all of two days for the denizens of the Menos Forest to learn to avoid the tiny pink-haired shinigami, given any choice in the matter. So if they stayed in their base of operations, they were safe? From everything outside, anyway.

A few hours into their flight, Yachiru had leaned down — not very far down — to look Nel-chan in the eye, and asked, "Do you want to cry, or do you want to fight?"

Nel-chan had glared back defiantly. "Nel can do both!"

After a beat, Yachiru had smiled brightly. "I can work with that!"

Dondochakka had tried to explain about how Nel-chan couldn't just go back to being Nelliel-sama whenever she wanted to, that she had to be small. Yachiru had looked at him quizzically and said, "And? So?"

In hindsight "small" hadn't been a good approach to take. That Nel-chan couldn't access her sword had just merited a thoughtful nod.

So now Yachiru was teaching Nel-chan how to fight — with sharp crystal shards split off from the trees, and with her hands and feet. Nel-chan burst into tears frequently, but she stuck to the training with grim determination. (She already had lots of experience climbing people.) Just yesterday she'd done a backflip and stabbed the "training dummy" in the face. Pesche and Dondochakka were expected to train to get stronger, too, or else face the smiling wrath of Yachiru-shishō.

And then there was the pile of sand — _wet_ sand — Yachiru had insisted they had to bring with them. Then she'd insisted on dumping it in a hole next to, but not in, their hideout, and went and poked it with her sword a few times a day. Pesche had even caught her talking to it!

"Ooze-taichō," she'd caroled. "Clown-taichō. I know you're in there." Poke, poke. "I bet you can hear me." Poke. "I bet if Urahara-san was turned into ooze and spread all over Hueco Mundo he'd still be able to talk and stuff and maybe fix Nel's mask."

The pile of wet sand _made a noise_. It wasn't a happy noise.

"I _thought_ you could hear me," Yachiru said gleefully. "Why don't you see if you can figure out how to talk?"


	8. Days 17-21

**See first chapter for warnings.** Delayed again, but I think I've figured out how to make this work. Shame I can't edit in situ, but oh well.

* * *

 **Inoue Orihime**

Ulquiorra had only scoffed a little at Orihime's timid request for a blank book that she could keep a journal in. He'd coldly pointed out that nothing she wrote would be private, that he would read the book any time he liked and show it to anyone else he wanted. Which was the case whatever he said, so really, telling her that was being kind! And when she said she wanted a journal anyway, he even got a notebook and pen from Twelfth, so it would be more what she was used to, and not the old-fashioned things a lot of Seireitei used!

Ulquiorra was very kind to her, when he wasn't being terrifying. Or creepy. Or cold. All right, maybe it would be more accurate to say Ulquiorra was occasionally kind to her.

Since she had no expectation of privacy, she didn't write down anything about her secret plan to make someone happy every day. She wrote things Ulquiorra would know anyway. She just… wrote about her day.

Orihime was "on call" all the time. Aizen-sama had offered to give her some real downtime, during which he would deal with any critical injuries, but she'd seen people suffering through Aizen-sama's imitation of her powers — they mostly looked like they would rather have stayed injured. The prisoners were going through hell already. She wasn't sure she could live with herself if she just let it get worse.

Critical injuries were easier to deal with in some ways. She could just pretend it was the result of a really ugly battle. And the person was usually unconscious so she didn't have to say anything.

But every evening she made a round of all the prisoners. They were returned to their sekkiseki cells, hosed off, healed by Orihime, and then they got food and were usually allowed to sleep. She tried to tell herself she was ushering in the best part of their day. It never helped as much as she hoped it would.

Tōshirō usually wasn't hurt very badly. He always had bruises, and torn up wrists and ankles, but sometimes that was it. But not always, and sometimes he'd have Luppi days. About half the time Luppi days led to a critical injury; the other half she usually found Tōshirō crumpled on the floor of his cell by the door, unable to move. It was almost more worrying when he was unable to move without any injuries to explain it — he just mumbled something about yokes and Aizen's healing. Overall he never said much, but he always thanked her before she left.

Rangiku spoke more. Sometimes she'd ask how Orihime was holding up, or what the weather was like outside, or she'd make jokes about the Exequias. She sometimes had Luppi days, too, but otherwise her injuries at least weren't life-threatening.

Renji was hurt worse. He was badly beaten almost every day, and there were the internal injuries she didn't need to know about in detail in order to heal. Sometimes he was so angry he could barely speak, but it never did any good. He'd thank her, too, and smile at her, sort of.

Ikkaku was so angry, all the time. Sometimes she didn't think he even recognized her.

Ukitake-san was sick most of the time, and getting sicker, and she couldn't seem to help. He smiled and told her she shouldn't worry too much about it — it was the sekkiseki weakening him, that was all — and her help with the symptoms was more than enough. He usually wasn't hurt much besides being sick.

Suì-Fēng-san and Byakuya-san were like Renji, always hurt badly. Suì-Fēng was… hard to deal with. She seemed to be angry at everything and everyone including Orihime. She acted like she considered Orihime her enemy. It was scary. Byakuya was so cold and remote — he acted like he didn't notice anything around him.

Kyōraku-san was in the middle, not hurt as often as Renji or Suì-Fēng or Byakuya but more often than Tōshirō. But he always had a smile and a terrible joke for her.

Komamura-san usually wasn't hurt as badly, but he was often very upset, because Tōsen-sama would come visit him and try to convince him to… change allegiance. He was polite, except when he seemed to be having trouble finding his words, and even then he was never threatening towards her.

She wouldn't know Sasakibe-san's name if others hadn't mentioned it. He… didn't seem to be paying attention, exactly.

(Ichigo had been worse, before they stopped bringing him to her. She hoped it meant Grimmjow had taken him to Seireitei, and maybe Rukia could look after him. He needed looking after — she'd never seen Ichigo like that.) (Her prayers had not been granted.)

The prisoners who weren't put in the proving ground didn't have such a fixed schedule. Sometimes Aizen or the arrancar would torture them, sometimes they didn't.

Aizen went and talked to, or maybe she should say at, Urahara-san almost every day, she was pretty sure. Sometimes it was just talking, or Aizen would bring a board game? (Aizen was very confusing in addition to being terrifying.) But sometimes Aizen would break his fingers, or choke him. At least the arrancar mostly didn't seem to be allowed to hurt Urahara-san, that was something. Yammy stomped on him once, but that was about it, and the only critical injury he'd had (so far).

Aizen didn't go talk to Shinji-san so much, only now and then, but he sent arrancar to his cell a lot. Shinji-san would be hurt very badly, and then he wouldn't even have a chance to clean up for days and days. Aizen laughed at him and taunted him a lot. ( _"Did you see_ this _coming, Hirako-taichō?") The other Visored didn't get hurt as much, except when Aizen had them tortured in front of Shinji-san._

Hachi-san told her they'd been told they'd be given to Szayelaporro for experimentation, when he got back from Hueco Mundo. So Orihime had told him about how the reason Szayelaporro was still in Hueco Mundo was he had to catch Kurotsuchi-taichō with a wet-dry vac. That had made him laugh.

(She felt a little bad about using Kurotsuchi-taichō's predicament to cheer up so many people. Only a little, though.)

(She didn't write down what Ulquiorra said about Ichimaru-sama being a traitor, and being imprisoned in the Royal Realm along with the former head captain. She wasn't sure if he was supposed to have told her that, and she didn't want to get him in trouble or anything.)

* * *

 **Kira Izuru**

After the latest day fighting far too many Hollows far too close to Seireitei, Isane had wanted to keep Kira at the Fourth overnight, nominally for observation but mostly to rest. Charlotte would have allowed it — as long as you didn't insult Charlotte's self-image he could be very generous — but not Findorr. Isane hadn't been able to overrule Findorr's insistence that Kira return to Baraggan's… lair, but had emphasized that he was still recovering and any "rough handling" could render him unfit for duty in the morning. Findorr had grumbled but agreed to make sure Kira got actual rest.

Sadly this took the form of a sign hanging around Kira's neck which read "hands off tonight or Fourth Division will bitch you out". He vowed silently never to tell Isane about it.

"Maybe I'll ask Baraggan-sama if I can go out and grab a girl," Findorr said grouchily. "I am not in the mood for sarcasm this evening."

Kira winced. He hated that his own reprieves always seemed to be paid for with someone else's suffering. Bad enough when it was Yumichika, but at least Kira could be confident he'd pay him back soon enough. But when the fraccion went out and grabbed some unfortunate civilian… They usually released them at the end of the night, at least. But sooner or later they'd probably find someone Baraggan _liked_ enough to be worth the trouble of yoking someone more fragile.

Not waiting to see whether Baraggan would approve Findorr's request, Kira retreated upstairs. He could probably get some uninterrupted sleep in what had once been the maids' room. He was distracted by Ōmaeda cursing quietly down the hall. That was a surprise — usually he avoided this floor and his family's rooms like the plague.

"Ōmaeda-san? Are you — is this Mareyo-chan's room?" It had to be. "Are you getting something to bring to her?"

For all he'd dragged his heels about going to see her to begin with, seeing his sister seemed to have done Ōmaeda a world of good — made him willing to put in the effort to stay sane under Baraggan's abuse. …Or else it was Kurosaki Ichigo's lecture about the responsibilities of older brothers. That might be more likely.

"They don't have much clothing her size," Ōmaeda said distractedly. "Mostly only older children packed at all, and some of them can fit academy uniforms, but — well, she needs clothes, but I don't know what to bring. I know what her favorite kimono is, but I don't know if I should take it — there's some horrible little Fēng child going around slashing up any clothing they don't think is practical enough."

"Maybe not that, then," Kira agreed. "If they're short on clothes that size generally, maybe just everything plain she has? So she can share with other kids her age?"

Ōmaeda frowned, hopefully not at the thought of sharing. "Maybe… What about toys?"

"Nothing too big. Things she could hide easily if she had to." This wasn't really Kira's area of expertise. "Are they allowed books?"

"Mareyo-chan doesn't have a lot of books." Ōmaeda looked dubious. "There are Marejirōsabu's books, but Mareyo-chan really doesn't like those."

"Maybe just stick to clothes and toys to start with, then."

Kira helped go through the clothes, picking only things simple enough that they wouldn't look out of place on a servant or a child in the inner Rukongai. There wasn't a lot, but Mareyo was young enough to have play clothes. He guessed more modern, Living-World-type clothing would also be allowable, but there wasn't any. The toys were mostly dolls — though hilariously, there was one doll which was _clearly_ meant to look like Suì-Fēng. Since there wasn't any baggage obvious, Kira showed Ōmaeda how to roll up everything in bedding and tie it into bundles.

"Do you have any relatives there?" Ōmaeda asked when they were done.

"Possibly, of some degree. No one I know at all, though." Which reminded him— "Ise-fukutaichō has cousins there, doesn't she? The children of the woman Nnoitra yoked."

"I only met one of them." Ōmaeda frowned darkly. "She'd told Mareyo-chan all sorts of terrifying stories. But I think she knows a little too much about what happened to her mother."

That _would_ be bad. Nnoitra even managed to make Baraggan look… well, not good, but… reasonable, maybe. On the other hand Nnoitra probably didn't invite his fraccion to participate.

As if summoned by the thought, there was a… sex bellow… from downstairs. Nirgge? Oh dear.

Ōmaeda frowned. "Why aren't you down there? Not to imply you're meant to be—"

Kira pointed to the sign.

"…Oh."

* * *

 **Kyōraku Shunsui**

After the "demonstration" with Sasakibe and Ichigo, Shunsui put some thought into long-term planning.

Item: Things just carrying on the way they were wouldn't break him. (Or Jū or Suì-Fēng, and the others weren't broken yet.)

Item: Aizen could assuredly break any of them, given sufficient imagination, effort, and Kyoka Suigetsu. He just didn't seem to be interested in doing that, at the moment. Was it more fun to do things the hard way? Or maybe coming up with detailed personalized illusion regimens would actually be the hard way?

Item: Aizen hadn't said what exactly he planned on doing with them when they were yoked. He'd implied he'd have them back at work in the Gotei 13, but he hadn't stated anything.

(Sub-item: Their old positions looked unlikely at this point. Someone as broken as Sasakibe was wouldn't be able to lead anything. And trying to lead the "sworn shinigami" would be… challenging, for anyone. Shunsui wouldn't enjoy it, but he could do it. Jūshirō could probably do it without plotting insidious revenge even. The others… well, it wouldn't be impossible, but it would be difficult and unpleasant all around.)

The best thing for one's mental health would probably be to accept the yoke the first chance one got and get the hell out of the proving ground. Even being an arrancar's toy would most likely be preferable to your _own troops_ — Well.

The trouble was, there wasn't any _guarantee_ they wouldn't be ordered to hurt people. In fact, it would be safer to guess they would. And for the most part those were people who would be getting hurt anyway, but not quite everyone was captured, not quite everyone was under Aizen's control, and being forced to work against whatever resistance there was… Even if it was ultimately unavoidable, not accepting the yoke was a _delaying action_.

He was probably just mentally inflating his own importance. If Aizen really wanted someone to use against Yoruichi, Urahara was the obvious choice. He should just accept the yoke, if he got the chance.

If.

* * *

 **Kurosaki Ichigo**

(Some days were bad.)

"Shit, I'm sorry," Ichigo said. He tried to help Rukia up, but she turned out to be steadier on her feet than he was. (He guessed they'd had plenty of practice hurting her without _injuring_ her too badly.) (Damn them.) "I'm so sorry, Rukia, are you—" He stopped himself. It was a stupid question, and he knew what she'd say anyway.

"Bath time," Rukia said.

"…What?"

"You'll feel better. Or at least I always feel better."

He would have expected sharing a tub to be more awkward, especially under the circumstances, but he was just too tired to be embarrassed. And he did feel better clean.

He didn't feel better about letting that happen to Rukia, though. "I'm so sorry," he repeated a while later. "They wanted me to do chores and I said I wasn't their slave labor, which was… really stupid and probably wrong, but… I won't do it again."

"It's okay," Rukia said. "You're not going to be _able_ to do everything they want, every time. Sometimes they just… want an excuse."

"…I know." He _did_ know — he'd dealt with bullies his whole life. He just… needed to get stronger, to be able to deal with this level of bully. "I'll try harder anyway."

"I wouldn't expect anything else."

* * *

 **Ise Nanao**

Nanao couldn't recall visiting the Ninth Division captain's office any time recently, but she suspected it had had some sort of desk, and the long table and chairs were new. Hisagi was just setting out — was that sake? (She'd had more alcohol in the last several weeks than in her entire life before, she was pretty sure, but she refused to drink enough to numb things. She suspected she wouldn't be able to stop.)

"You sent a hell butterfly?" she asked, when he didn't seem to have noticed her.

He jumped. "Sorry, didn't see you there. Yes. It occurred to be that since the meetings with Tōsen-sama tend to be a little, um, _tense_ , it might be helpful to have seperate division leadership meetings, especially beforehand to go over the agenda and what to expect… as much as I know, anyway. Maybe meet more often, since Tōsen-sama is spacing his meetings out more now. I didn't want to, um, presume to use the vice-captains' meeting room, since this isn't exactly formal, and also First Division is… The castle is distracting."

Ah. "Excellent idea."

The castle's oppressiveness was probably why Okikiba was the next one there. He went for the sake immediately. Then Iba arrived, followed by Isane, then Sentarō and Kiyone. Hopefully those two wouldn't be disruptive. Third Seat Aoyama Kintarō was currently leading Tenth, and doing… moderately well at it. Nanao knew he'd been going to Iba for advice often. Out from under Tōsen's… observation, Shirogane Ginjirō apparently felt free to give Hisagi a nasty look. Akon brought his own beverage, something unidentifiable in a bottle.

Kira and Ōmaeda arrived together. They were both wearing hats.

"Uh…" Iba started, but Kira held up a hand.

"Charlotte decided to try shinigami hairdressing. Please don't ask for details."

"And we got off lightly compared to Ayasegawa," Ōmaeda muttered. "I don't get why those two annoy each other so much, they're practically the same person."

Kira cringed. "Never ever say that where either of them can hear you. Or any of the other fraccion, they'd tell."

Personally Nanao guessed that it would get back to Ayasegawa, if not Chuhlhourne, inside of a few days. Not that any of the division leaders were habitually _indiscreet_ , exactly, but they did tend to gossip. Nanao herself was already thinking of relaying it to Lisa, and from there it might spread to Mashiro and Hiyori, and then Harribel's fraccion, and then you might as well put it in the _Seireitei Communication_. (She hadn't seen that since the takeover, or been asked for a contribution — had Hisagi given up on it? Maybe he just hadn't had time.)

Hinamori trudged in with dark circles around her eyes and a clearly forced smile. "Hope I haven't been holding things up! The children had, uh, a lot of questions about the, um, educational materials Tōsen-sama provided."

"No, we were just getting started," Hisagi said.

Without being asked, Isane handed Hinamori a reiatsu-replenishing pill.

"Wait, what kind of educational materials?" Ōmaeda asked suspiciously.

"Um, I don't think you need to worry about it—"

"If you're making Mareyo-chan listen to, to propaganda about—"

"It's not going to do anything to your sister except possibly put her to sleep," Hisagi interrupted.

"How do you know?" Ōmaeda demanded.

"Because we had to print it," Hisagi said. "It's just all his old _Path of Justice_ articles compiled, Ōmaeda."

That certainly wasn't going to brainwash anyone. Although it seemed like it might be a little — abstract, for children Mareyo's age. (If Noriyo and Katae had the Ise critical attitude, they were probably getting extremely sarcastic right now.)

"All right, business," Hisagi said. "Ōmaeda-fukutaichō, I know Second's not up to field deployment right now, but we're going to need to rotate you and Ayasegawa as shikai reinforcements. Tōsen-sama hasn't decided exactly how to set it up, yet, but it's coming."

"I will be _glad_ to," Ōmaeda said. "Give me something I can smash. _Please_."

"How's Ayasegawa-san working out in Second?" Nanao asked.

Ōmaeda scowled. "Indecently well, the cunning little bastard. If he didn't make so many people hate him the Stealth Force would want _him_ in charge."

"That's Yumichika for you," Iba said.

"What was he doing in Eleventh to start with?" Ōmaeda said. "He's smart enough to get in a — a proper — in _not Eleventh_."

"Ikkaku," Iba said simply. "He'd never leave him. And also he likes feeling like the smartest person in a room."

"And the _false shikai_ thing—"

"Setting aside Ayasegawa and his — his shikai," Hisagi said, grimacing. "Twelfth — any progress explaining the Hollow incursions?"

Akon drank from his bottle. "Strange readings everywhere, but especially around the castle, at least from those sensors it didn't break when it showed up. Can't say more about that unless we have a sensor _in_ the castle, which I don't think is going to happen. So we're monitoring the Precipice World."

"So no progress," Hisagi said.

"We got our alert times down to inside a minute, which is pretty good for people living in fear of being _eaten_ as soon as their new boss finishes vacuuming up their old boss." Akon knocked back another drink. That wasn't alcoholic, was it? "I swear he was eying up the lab personnel before he got down to Quincy-torturing this time…"

"…Right." Hisagi looked down at his notes. "A question for everyone — how are things with the sworn shinigami?"

"We're still having problems," Isane said immediately. "Not so much at the Division itself, since Gantenbainne-san started stopping by regularly, but officers are still being accosted elsewhere, especially after dark. If there's going to be an enforced curfew with exception passes, can we just get it set up?"

Nanao was beginning to suspect Gantenbainne-san had a bit of a _thing_ for Isane. Or maybe he was just grateful, because she'd helped save his life in Las Noches? Or both? Well, she'd keep an eye on the situation.

"Are you sure we can't just _lose_ the curfew instead?" Iba asked. "It's… I don't know, do they really even think it's necessary? Do they think we become extra-suspicious after dark or something?"

Hisagi frowned. "Um… technically… there isn't a global curfew for shinigami. Civilians are supposed to be off the streets after dark, and anyone, um, under an Espada's direct command has individual rules to follow, but most shinigami should be free to move around."

Nanao raised an eyebrow. "If that's supposed to be the state of affairs, I think there are quite a few sworn shinigami and arrancar who need to be advised of it."

"So… clarify curfew all around," Hisagi said. "All right, that's no problem to ask for. But people with sworn shinigami in their divisions — how's that going?" He looked around the table.

"Third Seat Enjōji swore, and has been handling all the others at Eighth," Nanao said. "It's… manageable. I suspect there have been some issues he hasn't wanted to worry me with, with the ones who came from other divisions originally, but nothing's gotten out of control so far." After a moment, in the interests of honesty, she added, "It probably doesn't hurt that Lisa-san is around a lot, too, and a lot of them find her intimidating and, um, don't think the Tercera would do anything about it if she flattened them."

"We've been leaning on Yadōmaru-san a bit, too," Kiyone admitted. She was only glaring at Hisagi a _little_ bit. "Her and Kuchiki Rukia. To intimidate the sworn shinigami into respecting our authority, I mean — or at least out of openly challenging us. Do we have the authority to promote people? Because Kuchiki's definitely doing seated officer levels of work."

"If it weren't someone with the name Kuchiki, I'd say something could probably be arranged," Hisagi said. "Since it is, better leave it alone."

"Even though she's adopted? Well, anyway, we're managing."

"We're having trouble," Iba admitted reluctantly. "Nothing I can't handle, but they're acting up."

"I'm not sure I can handle it," Aoyama said bluntly. "Even some of the ones from Tenth originally — I don't know what's gotten into them."

Shirogane just frowned and shook his head, which wasn't very informative.

Okikiba sighed. "I'm sure you've all noticed many of them seem to have the idea that being in First Division confers special privileges…"

"Ayasegawa has them all terrorized into submission, pretty much," Ōmaeda said.

"The sworn shinigami originally from Third are working out fine," Kira said. "The new ones are… pushier. And then the ones from Third push back." He sighed. "And then inevitably someone starts a fight about Ichimaru — do you know what that means, anyway? I mean — the yokes require Aizen-sama, Tōsen-sama, nothing about Ichimaru."

"Oh." Hisagi frowned. "I'm… not completely sure about that. I… think Ichimaru might have betrayed him? Possibly? Tōsen-sama was… cryptic."

"You didn't tell me that," Hinamori said, mildly surprised.

He shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm not completely sure."

Nanao frowned. "If that's the case, it casts a… potentially more ominous light on why they haven't returned Rangiku-san."

"Hmm," Hisagi said. "So how are repairs going?"

Not as ominous a light as Hisagi's evasiveness did, though.

* * *

 **Ishida Uryū**

Uryū had no idea why Szayelaporro had to come torment _him_ every time he visited Seireitei. Sure, he was the last Quincy (except for Ryūken, but fuck him anyway), but he couldn't possibly be the most interesting thing in all of Twelfth Division! Wouldn't he at least want to familiarize himself with their ongoing research? And there had to be literally dozens of administrative items that needed the attention of the head of research.

Uryū was lucid enough to realize the shortness of breath and heart palpitations probably meant the Twelfth Division person shouldn't have _slathered_ on the topical analgesic after Szayelaporro left. He couldn't bring himself to care. He hoped some of it _did_ get in an improperly sealed incision, then maybe everything would _hurt_ less. Because shit did everything hurt.

As far as he could tell, his body knew it was wildly inappropriate for someone to be… _fondling_ his internal organs, but none of the normal feedback systems were equipped to report that sort of problem, so it was panicking and reporting pain everywhere, on top of the actual pain from being cut open.

(Why did he even know he didn't have normal pain receptors in his internal organs? He didn't want to be a doctor. Ryūken had probably told him. Sometime inappropriate. Probably over dinner when he was a small child.)

They figured out something was wrong when he started seizing, and hosed him off and sent for Fourth Division. Uryū didn't care. He was still mostly numb.

This time Hanatarō was accompanied by an older woman who specialized in treating overdoses. She did some kind of healing kidō while haranguing the Twelfth Division people. "Anyone who made this kind of mistake under Unohana-taichō would be lucky to walk away with all their skin. You're scientists, you know the importance of following procedure—"

At which point it was revealed that this _was_ the normal procedure for a Twelfth Division officer who'd been experimented on, and they usually just went off and lay down until the overdose symptoms disappeared or they died. The Fourth Division officer was not impressed.

The numbness went away with the poisoning, and Hanatarō's healing dealt with the pain from being cut open but not the weird misplaced pain from his mishandled organs. Uryū wished everyone would _shut up_. "Can I go back to my cell please?"

Hanatarō and one of the Twelfth Division officers carried him there, and Hanatarō stayed to "help him get settled", which hopefully meant _give them some news from the damn outside world_.

"Ichigo-san is back in Seireitei," Hanatarō started.

"Is he all right?" Sado asked.

Hanatarō hesitated a little too long. "He's… getting better, I think? The Sexta is— Well, he was very glad to hear you're alive. And about the people who escaped from Karakura."

Sado made an inarticulate noise. He was probably thinking, as Uryū was, that if Ichigo hadn't known his sisters made it out of Karakura then nothing anyone else could do to him would compare to what he'd do to himself.

"And now that Ichigo-san is here, Rukia-san isn't getting hurt — as much, since Grimmjow doesn't let the fraccion hurt her as long as Ichigo-san is fighting how Grimmjow wants him to."

Uryū briefly wondered how much exactly Rukia had been getting hurt before, then firmly decided it wasn't any of his business. "Has Kurosaki gotten his powers back?"

"I think… there's been progress?"

How vague. "Well… tell him good luck from us, I guess."

"Hanatarō-san," Sado said. "Is there anything at all you or Ichigo or anyone else could do to get us out of here?"

What? "I think if there was something they could do, they would already have—"

"Ishida isn't going to last much longer."

 _What?_ Uryū glared at Sado, who seemed sadly impervious. "I am not about to die." Honesty compelled him to add, "As long as I get prompt treatment when necessary, which is what happens, so… This is a stupid conversation."

"Szayelaporro always singles him out," Sado went on, as if Uryū hadn't spoken. "He keeps doing stranger and stranger things. Uryū can't sleep because of nightmares—"

"No more than you!" Uryū said indignantly. "I can handle this!"

"The _Twelfth Division_ people think Szayelaporro's behavior is… unsettling."

Hanatarō rocked back. "Ishida-san!"

" _I'm fine_!"

Uryū rolled over and pulled his thin blanket over his head and refused to pay any more attention to the discussion. He knew it looked childish and he didn't care. He was fine, because there wasn't any other _option_ — what was Sado expecting Ichigo to do, fight all the arrancar and conquered shinigami with maybe-partially-recovered powers and a mind-control device? He was just being realistic!

Despite the lingering pain and the simmering frustration, he dozed off — only the be awakened by an obnoxious clanging noise.

"Quincy-san!" someone called. "Are you awake? Quincy-san!"

Sado grunted. "It's for you." Possibly Sado was a little irritated at him for earlier.

"I can see that." Uryū dragged himself upright and, leaning on the walls, made his way to where the Twelfth Division shinigami was banging on the bars. " _What_?"

The shinigami at least stopped clanging. "Sorry about the mixup with the topical."

Really? "It's nothing." He'd just been glad of _any_ sort of analgesic.

"We got you something to make up for it," the shinigami said.

"Really." Unless they were offering a way out— Uryū froze, and then snatched up the offered object. " _Thank you_." The glasses even _fit_ , and the cell came into focus around him— "…Is this my prescription?"

"Oh, yeah, we looked at Kurotsuchi-taichō's data to replicate yours."

That was… creepy, but at the moment — whatever. "Thank you." And he never wanted to be saying this to a shinigami, especially a Twelfth Division shinigami, but— "I owe you."

* * *

 **Kurosaki Ichigo**

(Most days were just tiring.)

Rukia shuffled into the room and flopped down on her futon. Ichigo managed to peel open an eye and turn his head to look at her. "Long day?"

"Huge Hollows. East Twenties. You?"

"Edrad and Yylfordt trying to outdo each other. Casualties?"

"Everyone came back alive. Eleven people still at the Fourth. Anything broken?"

"Maybe ribs. I think something in my hand. Nothing that can't wait until morning. Have you eaten?"

"Grabbed some rations in the Fourth. You?"

"Not really, they let me off cooking…" A bundle of rations landed on his chest, right on a bruise. "Ow!"

"Sorry."

"No, s'fine. Thanks."

 **Shihōin Yoruichi**

Yoruichi was digging into her second helping of breakfast when one of the mod souls skidded into the kitchen. "Tessai-san! Yoruichi-dono! Unohana-san wants you to come to the monitor room right away!"

She hoped it would be Kisuke, but it wasn't — Unohana's attention was fixed on a monitor showing another one of those over-desk views of— "Is that Fifth?" She wouldn't have thought Aizen would let that pass — all part of the facade, she supposed. It took a minute longer to identify the two people at the desk from the tops of their heads. The single yoke and two white kosode helped. "That's… Kira and… is that Hinamori? She changed her hair."

"Yes, and I'm actually very glad to see it," Unohana said. "But look at the desk."

The two vice-captains seemed to be looking over the sort of insanely complicated kidō diagram Yoruichi had always been happy to push off on Kisuke or Tessai. Hinamori was pointing to various things, apparently explaining something to Kira. "What's _that_?"

"It's the plans for the yoke," Tessai said, leaning forward.

" _Oh_." Yoruichi leaned forward, too, although she wasn't any more able to make heads or tails of it. Judging from the two open kidō reference books on the desk, the vice-captains were in a little over their heads, too. "…What are they doing with that?"

Tessai didn't reply, staring intently at the screen. Yoruichi sighed internally and went back to get the rest of her breakfast. When she returned, Unohana was at another monitor, trying to pull up the start of the meeting. "Anything?"

"They've been trying to understand what part of the yoke is injuring people," Tessai said. "Hinamori-san has evidently been working on it for a while, and wanted Kira-san to verify her conclusions. He made a few suggestions. I believe they are… mostly correct."

"Could this tell us how to get the yoke off?" Unohana asked.

"Potentially. It appears to be sealed with the reiryoku of the… primary yoke holder. I can see how one would go about removing a yoke set by someone with lower reiatsu levels. Yokes set by someone with higher reiatsu levels would be more of a problem."

Yoruichi considered the Espada. "So still a problem."

"Yes." Tessai stroked his chin. "But it is a great help."

On the screen, Hinamori spread out a new set of papers on top of the others — more kidō diagrams, but less professional. "And those would be her notes on redesigning it not to injure people," Unohana said. "Kira seems to think they're promising…"

There was a brief moment of silence.

"They're not promising," Unohana said.

"They… will not have the desired result," Tessai said diplomatically. "I can see how they came to that conclusion — they're doing very well for generalists — but if I understand the notation and the yoke theory correctly that modification would increase the damage substantially."

"Fatally?" Unohana asked.

Tessai paused the monitor to study the design more carefully. "Not to a vice-captain. For the less powerful people — I'm not sure. All the really thorough yoke examination have been carried out where we have no surveillance, so I don't know how the damage happens precisely… The civilians might be in danger."

Or Ichigo, he didn't say.

(Ichigo spent most of his time wherever Grimmjow was based, and moving the surveillance sensors was tricky, so they mostly only saw him arriving for and departing from the daily yoke inspections. Even in those short glimpses they could see he was frequently injured beyond the yoke's effects — bruised wrists, limping, _bite_ marks. Yoruichi strongly suspected Grimmjow was using him sexually. But he didn't seem to be letting the abuse or his lack of powers crush him. They saw him talking more or less normally to Rukia, to Hanatarō, sometimes mouthing off to the fraccion. Yoruichi had eventually decided he probably knew about Karin, Yuzu, and the others making it out of Karakura.)

Unohana pursed her lips. "If you could tell that just looking at it, Aizen should be able to, too. Although I suppose that has very little bearing on whether he will apply the redesign to anyone."

Yoruichi wasn't as good as predicting Aizen as Kisuke or Shinji, and they weren't perfect at it, either. "I don't think he'd let anyone get killed, after he healed everyone at the battle site. Not…" Not anyone of any interest to him, at least. Which might not bode well for the civilians or unseated officers, and which also might mean he'd let people be hurt and then heal them. "Let's keep watching. Someone might catch it before it gets to that point."

Although somehow she thought if they had the opportunity to run it past a kidō master, they would have already.

* * *

 **Yadōmaru Lisa**

After three weeks, Hiyori still had not learned how to play nicely with anyone, though she was willing to tolerate Nanao for Lisa's sake and Rukia for Ichigo's. Lisa considered even that much a bit of a miracle and worth celebrating. Fortunately Harribel-sama seemed to prefer an approach of tolerant patience, and Hiyori was fairly cooperative when it came to fighting Hollows.

Mashiro, on the other hand, was adapting quickly. She would work happily enough with just about anyone who was polite to her — shinigami, yoked shinigami, whitecoat shinigami, even some arrancar. She could even (briefly) pull off respectful enough not to annoy the Espada. But there was one inconvenient exception: Tōsen. Which was understandable — with Tōsen it was _personal_.

But it did mean Lisa had to do all the reporting from the three of them to Tōsen, and it wasn't like she enjoyed that either.

Lisa was cooling her heels in First Division, waiting to give a report on the Menos which had popped up in South Thirty-First, which she and Hiyori had handily dispatched, and another one in South Thirty-Sixth, which Mashiro had managed, and a few dozen basic Hollows in South Fortieth, which the three of them had joined forces on to mop up, and also one more Menos in West Thirty-Ninth, where they'd had to go relieve/rescue Kuchiki Rukia, who'd kept civilians and shikai-less officers intact by baiting the Menos into following her away from them into an unoccupied area. And the Huge Hollows in West Nineteenth they'd helped with on the way back — Kira and his two whitecoat backups could have handled one just fine, two, maybe five, not ten.

When they'd all trooped into the Emergency Relief Station, they'd found Nanao, Ōmaeda, and half a dozen more whitecoats already there, run ragged from dealing with a (fortunately singular) Menos in _North_ Thirty-Eighth.

Another Menos had started to poke its head out of a garganta in East First, but it at least had retreated when Harribel went and menaced at it.

This wasn't normal and it wasn't sustainable. Lisa wasn't planning on saying that, exactly, but she did plan to make clear how… tenuous things were.

Assuming Tōsen ever finished whatever the fuck he was doing in there and saw his other appointments.

She should have brought something to read.

Lisa wandered over to look at the tower which still looked like the Senzaikyū, but which wasn't made of sekkiseki. Had Aizen wanted the sekkiseki for something else? Why hadn't he just conjured it into being like he had the castle? Was there something different about sekkiseki? Or did all his building materials have to come from somewhere? With the tower being used primarily for accessing the castle, had anyone put in some better stairs?

She'd almost talked herself into at least poking her head in to check out the stairs when a whitecoat came hurtling out of the tower and crashed into her. Or no, not an ordinary whitecoat — Hinamori Momo, one of the vice-captains who'd been inducted by Tōsen without the mysterious test.

Lisa wasn't as trusting as Nanao that Tōsen's lieutenants were solidly on the side of the rest of Seireitei, but she knew better than to push — especially with Hinamori, whom Nanao said was fragile.

It was very easy to believe right now, given the hysterical sobbing.

"Hey, hey, take it easy," Lisa said, almost reflexively.

…Oh. 'Vice-captain dealing with a personnel problem' reaction. That hadn't come up in ages. Well, it was as good as anything for dealing with someone crying all over her.

Lisa pulled the girl into the nearest empty room before too many people could notice, and gave her a minute to compose herself, since she seemed to be working on that. She didn't seem to be injured at all. There _were_ specks of blood on her kosode.

"What's wrong?" Lisa asked finally, when it seemed like Hinamori might have calmed down enough to talk.

She hiccuped. "I — it's — I have to—" She broke off and scrubbed at her face. "Could you ask— Are you a kidō expert, Yadōmaru-san? Or Sarugaki-san or Mashiro-san?"

Lisa shrugged. "Well, I'm competent, but I don't think that's what you mean. Hiyori and Mashiro are…" Nominally competent? "Out of practice." Not that Lisa had gotten in heaps of practice in exile, either, but she was still more confident in her own skills than either of theirs.

"Then — then do you think you could ask the Tercera for a favor? I — I have to ask for— I'm supposed to be redesigning the yoke, but I _can't_ , I'm _not good enough_ , I tried and made it so much worse, so I need to get someone else, and Nanao-san is much better than I am, and _he_ said I could ask for anyone but the captains b-but they'd have to be y-yoked — but I thought maybe, th-the Tercera isn't so hard on you, right? That wouldn't be so bad, right? S-so if you could ask the Tercera if she could take Nanao-san…"

Lisa's first impulse was to say she'd rather put up with the current yoke than have Nanao yoked even under Harribel, but that wasn't fair. She had it easy. She _knew_ what the yoke was doing to mostly-powerless Ichigo, to the civilians, even the weaker shinigami. Still… "He said you could ask for anyone but the captains? Ask for Hachi."

"Wh-who?"

"Ushōda Hachigen. He's another Visored, Nanao's good with kidō but he's much better — he used to be second-in-command of the Kidō Corps — and he's currently being held in the castle somewhere, so it probably wouldn't make his situation much worse." Lisa frowned. "Why isn't the Kidō Corps doing the redesign anyway?"

"Because… because I asked about it, I guess…" Hinamori shrugged a little, but then straightened and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Ushōda Hachigen. Yes, that makes sense, that could— I'll ask for him. Thank you, Yadōmaru-san."

"No problem." Lisa grimaced. It might be a problem, actually. If Aizen had been pushing someone unqualified to do the yoke redesign rather than passing it off to the Kidō Corps, it probably meant he _wanted_ Hinamori tearing herself apart over this, and Lisa throwing a wrench in the works could be… taken badly. But the yoke did need to be redesigned, and it would be good to get Hachi out of the castle, and preferable to keep Nanao un-yoked. If that was possible. "And if for some reason Nanao is going to be yoked, I will ask Harribel-sama."

She didn't think she'd be able to shield Nanao like she was Hiyori and Mashiro, if it came to that — didn't think Nanao would _let_ her, even if the arrancar would. She didn't want to see little Nanao getting debauched by the Tres Bestias. But better Harribel and company than any of the other yoke-holding arrancar she'd seen so far.

* * *

 **Kurosaki Ichigo**

(A few days were good.)

Rukia got back early — it was light out, and Ichigo was still sitting in the garden.

"Ichigo! I have to tell you about this — the Hollows _stood on top of each other_ , I could not have asked for a better target for Tsukishiro — Ichigo?"

"Hey, Rukia," he said, not opening his eyes.

"Is that an _asauchi_?"

"Grimmjow-sama brought it this morning," he said. "I told him it wouldn't do any good, but when I touched it — I heard Zangetsu." It had just been a whisper, but he _knew_ it was real. "I've been trying to meditate since then, but all I can hear is my Hollow calling me a loser." And even that was welcome. "Maybe you can give me some… sword meditation tips."

"…Happy to."

They were still in there. They were just waiting for Ichigo to find a way for them to come out.

* * *

 **Shihōin Yoruichi**

As per telephoned request, they met at a fast food place near his hotel. He looked mildly irritated when she sat down.

"I was expecting Urahara or Kurosaki."

She wore another disguise gigai, but at this range it wasn't surprising he saw through it. "Captured and presumed captured, respectively." She set a playback device on the table. "Everything we have on Uryū. He's being treated very poorly, but he's alive."

"I see." He neither looked at nor touched the device. "And Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"Also alive, also treated poorly, although in an entirely different way." She let the silence sit for a moment. "I assume you're aware Karin and Yuzu escaped?"

"Yes. Is there a reason you haven't brought them to wherever you're hiding?"

"They know Ururu and Jinta, but not so much me or Tessai. They know and trust Arisawa. And as long as our enemies aren't already searching for them, they're probably safer there, too."

Ryūken made a noncommittal noise that probably indicated his acceptance of the reasoning, since he hadn't tried to pick them up either. (Not that she was complaining about that. The kind of child-rearing which had produced Uryū applied to _Karin_ would probably be… explosive in consequence.) "The government investigation is still ongoing. They've finally decided Don Kanonji is not faking his entire personality to cover up his involvement in a terrorist plot. They never suspected the others."

"Have they given you any trouble? Since you were conveniently out of town?"

"It's under control," he said dismissively. "Are you planning to retaliate or are you cutting your losses?" A big fan of cutting losses, Ryūken.

"We're still evaluating the situation, gathering intelligence, but I expect we'll take action at some point. Why, you want in?"

The silence stretched awkwardly as Ryūken struggled with the prospect of admitting he cared what happened to his only child. Seriously, she'd known Kuchiki clan members less emotionally constipated.

"…Yes," he said finally. "There is no telling what that… shinigami will do to this world."

Yoruichi considered pointing out that Aizen couldn't exactly be considered a shinigami at this point. Instead, she said, "We'll let you know when we have something planned. You let _us_ know if you want an update on Uryū."

(If Unohana was going to needle her about Yūshirō, damn right she was going to needle Ryūken about Uryū.)


	9. Days 22-27

See first chapter for warnings. This chapter appearing here some days after AO3, because of my endless grudge match with the posting interface.

* * *

 **Ichimaru Gin**

Day twenty-two, and the First Proving Ground Respiratory Arrest award went to — wait. If respiratory arrest due to strangulation counted, then it went to… damn, he couldn't remember. Either Abarai or Suì-Fēng, within the first few days. And then excluding strangulation, Hitsugaya stopped breathing on day ten or so when a very large candidate _sat_ on him. And Suì-Fēng had held her own breath to the point of passing out at least twice, and Byakuya might have done it once. And really there wasn't any point in bringing up temporarily obstructed airways.

Accuracy spoiled all Gin's fun.

First Proving Ground Mostly Spontaneous Respiratory Arrest Award went to Ukitake, no surprise there. (For a while it looked like there might be an upset — on Day Twenty-one Hitsugaya got back from the least successful yoke improvement attempt yet and couldn't seem to catch his breath the rest of the day, but he was fine in the morning.) Ukitake stopped breathing after a particularly nasty coughing fit. Apart from that it really was spontaneous; Ukitake had gotten even less popular in the proving ground as his symptoms worsened. Gin guessed that was partially out of not wanting to hurt a sick man, but some of them were definitely bizarrely averse to coughed-up blood. Blood from any other source, they had no problem with, but heaven forbid they came in contact with coughed-up blood!

…It might make some amount of sense as fear of _catching_ the disease, but if Ukitake were contagious he would have infected most of his vice-captains over the centuries, Kyōraku, and his latest Third Seats might well have infected _themselves_. So really, Gin decided, they were just being stupid.

Back to spontaneous respiratory arrest. The first person to notice was Kyōraku, despite having every reason to be distracted. Perhaps that wasn't surprising. He then had to get the Exequias's attention, since none of the sworn shinigami alerted in the meantime did anything useful.

(Really, if Gin were still acting as Aizen's second—in-command, he'd be concerned about the low quality of followers this whole scheme was producing.)

Ukitake was dragged off by Exequias and dragged back in an hour later, breathing and conscious and apparently none the worse for wear. The candidates avoided him even more.

 _And_ now Kyōraku was being dragged off. Looked like Gin didn't get to see what for.

Well, he could still watch his former Twentieth Seat making the rounds with her favorite book of matches. She was always very amusing to observe — especially since it seemed his influence was still strong enough for her to skip Rangiku.

* * *

 **Kyōraku Shunsui**

Apparently the regular proving ground routine and Jū _stopping breathing_ weren't enough for one day. A lovely young lady from Third brought matches and went around burning everyone in intimate places — at least, Shunsui hoped she was responsible for the unusually uncontrolled screams he was hearing. (Since she _was_ from Third, he didn't have to wonder how this tendency had been missed; Gin had probably considered it an asset. Then again, was she really that much worse than the rapists? Probably not.)

On top of that, Shunsui got to go see Aizen! Hopefully it wouldn't be whatever it was which usually left Tōshirō unresponsive for the rest of day. Or maybe hopefully it would; Shunsui was sort of curious about it. It was nice to be clean in the middle of the day, anyway.

The throne room was just as over-the-top as he remembered. "Shunsui," Aizen said, smiling. "I thought we might play a little game."

Oh, _fuck_. "Yare, yare," he said mildly, instead of showing how alarming that was. (Aizen undoubtedly knew, but that was how the greater game was played.) "I'm surprised you have time for that, Aizen-san."

"Well, another game of mine has come to a… premature end," Aizen said. "Thanks to your former vice-captain being a little too clever for her own good. Which I would discuss with her personally, but the Tercera really wouldn't take that well… So we're going to have a little game. It won't take long." He steepled his fingers. "Tell me, what do you remember about Ise Nariko?"

He kept better track of Nanao's relatives than Nanao did, so he knew quite a bit. Oh, but he did not like where this was heading. "The younger of Nanao's first cousins. Charming girl. Very creative approach to getting around the Ise curse." Or at least to keeping a clean conscience while producing children. It involved one-night-stands with Eleventh Division members likely to die in the near future anyway.

"Mm," Aizen said. "Nnoitra thinks she's charming, too — or at least fascinating. He finds it infuriating when a woman thinks she's better than him, but those are also the ones he can't seem to walk away from."

Oh, hell.

"He finds her so fascinating, in fact, that he wants another Ise." Aizen chuckled. "I don't think anyone's told him about the curse, but he would probably dismiss the possibility of it affecting him. Personally I'm curious to see what happens. Now, Nariko's children are a little too young for that, so that leaves two options."

Shunsui didn't say anything.

"I'm sure you see where I'm going with this, don't you, Shunsui-kun?"

"I do," Shunsui admitted.

"Now, since Ise-fukutaichō _is_ currently performing useful services in the Seireitei, and Nnoitra would _not_ facilitate that, I'm not going to ask for much from you. Just address me properly, and beg me to let Nnoitra have Ise Nobume instead."

Proper, devout Nobume, who'd take enslavement so much worse than Nariko — or Nanao, if he was honest. Nanao was strong. But Shunsui was weak. "Please, Aizen-sama, let him have Nobume instead."

"Very good, Shunsui-kun. I'll do that. Have a pleasant day."

And back to the proving ground it was. Really, it was amazing how no one ever noticed what a cruel sense of humor Aizen had, before.

(Things he'd learned: Nanao was un-yoked and on duty. Some yoked shinigami were also on duty. Lisa was autonomous enough to spoil one of Aizen's games, and also in some way under Harribel's protection — that probably meant a yoke.)

(And Aizen really liked games.)

(Not that that last was in any way _new_ information…)

* * *

 **Coyote Starrk**

Starrk knew it was coming. He paid attention to what people were saying even when he didn't act on it, and Lilynette loved to report gossip. Harribel was holding the yokes on three semi-shinigami who were very busy, and herself was doing some Hollow policing. Baraggan had three shinigami, and was… probably not doing anything terribly productive himself, but his fraccion were backing up shinigami patrols. Since Lilynette couldn't (or at least wouldn't) do anything of the sort, Starrk was going to be expected to do something productive — or at least yoke a shinigami who would do something productive.

(He didn't know if Ulquiorra was holding any yokes, but the Cuatro ran around on Aizen's errands _himself_ all the time, and no way did Starrk want to do that.)

It wouldn't _require_ living down in the Seireitei, but he didn't see himself… _commuting_. Lilynette was very enthusiastic about the idea.

So when Aizen told him to report to the throne room to choose his shinigami, he packed up some uniforms. Carting anything else down seemed like too much trouble when it probably wouldn't be very hard to replace. He understood were lots of dead rich shinigami whose stuff you could take. Lilynette couldn't be bothered to pack. (He considered trying to make her, then decided that was too much effort and decided to take this as an opportunity to get her in a uniform less modeled after Loly Aivirrne's. Maybe something more like Cirucci's, or one of Harribel's fraccion's — even Mila Rose's would be an improvement.)

"Starrk," Aizen said pleasantly when they arrived. "I have a choice of pets for you, neither of which should be too much trouble. Visored Ushōda Hachigen will be assisting in a redesign of the yoke to make it less injurious to weaker shinigami, and former vice-captain Sasakibe Chōjirō will be a bankai asset against Hollow incursions."

This was not a _pet_ , this was a duty, but there was no point arguing that. "…Thank you, Aizen-sama." Starrk looked at the two kneeling shinigami — or one shinigami and one weird half-Hollow, whatever. Neither of them _looked_ like a troublemaker, but looks could be deceiving. One of them was considerably bigger than Starrk, which would be very inconvenient if he ever had to transport him. The other one was so vacant-eyed Starrk was reminded of Grimmjow's complaints of having to order his pet to eat. He didn't want to have to do _that_. And if the shinigami was expected to fight anything, and Starrk had to tell him what to do, that would be even worse. But the first one really was so large…

He sighed heavily. "Lilynette? Which one do you like better?"

She gave the prisoners a critical look. "Neither of them looks very exciting, but the pink and brown one looks sturdier."

True. And if he wasn't a front-line fighter type, he'd be much easier to monitor. "All right." This was still going to be a pain, though.

Starrk manifested a compressed yoke in his hand and walked around behind the half-Hollow. "This will probably hurt quite a lot," he said.

It clearly did, but the man didn't cry out.

"Very good, Starrk," Aizen said. "Hachigen-kun, I trust you will not be too much trouble for your master. Your primary duty for the present will be aiding in redesign of the yoke so it does not injure subjects with weaker spiritual pressure, as well as other projects I may assign you. You will not do anything to try to circumvent or sabotage the yoke. Do you understand?"

"Hai, Aizen-sama," the prisoner — Hachigen — said, and grimaced slightly.

"Dismissed, Starrk," Aizen said. "I suggest you take your new pet down to Seireitei, check in with Tōsen, and get settled in. Oh, and you should choose your residence with the idea of housing at least four more pets, in addition to this one."

"Hai, Aizen-sama," Starrk said glumly.

How the hell was he going to be expected to handle _five_ shinigami pets? He could barely handle Lilynette most days.

He picked up his bag. "All right, time to go. You can walk, right?"

"Hai, Starrk-sama," the prisoner — Hachigen — said. He seemed steady on his feet.

"Make him carry the bag — no, make him carry _me_!" Lilynette cried.

"Absolutely not." No one needed to be subjected to Lilynette's 'go faster!' kicking on the _stairs_.

They proceeded down the stairs in the white tower thing at a relaxed pace. Starrk was relaxed, anyway; Hachigen was favoring one leg, and Lilynette kept running ahead and then running back to urge them to hurry up. Not for the first time, Starrk wondered why she seemed to have all the energy between the two of them.

Halfway down, Starrk realized he probably should have looked into getting the prisoner some shoes before having him walk all over the place. The stairs were mostly smooth, but there was all sorts of… wood and stuff in Seireitei, there might be… splinters or something. "When we get to First Division, I'll check in with Tōsen — you two see if you can find Hachigen some sandals in the area. And a uniform if there is one, but definitely sandals."

"Fine, I don't want to talk to Tōsen anyway."

"Thank you, Starrk-sama," Hachigen said.

"Don't thank me yet, I'm going to have you find a house." In fact… "If you find the clothes before I'm done with Tōsen, go start trying to find a house." Might as well get some good out of this burden.

He regretted his decision half an hour later when, after he finally got in to see Tōsen, Tōsen insisted he stay for the upcoming meeting of yoke-holding Espada and available division leadership. Starrk wasn't sure why. Introducing him to the shinigami, maybe? Tōsen pointed him to the meeting room and then went off to do something else. (Unlike Aizen's meeting rooms, this one didn't even have chairs. Why would anyone do a thing like that?) He leaned on the wall.

Fortunately there wasn't too long a wait before people arrived. The shinigami looked at him sideways and whispered to each other. He heard "Primera" — presumably some of the ones who had been at the battle identified him. Baraggan and Harribel nodded short greetings as they arrived. Grimmjow and Nnoitra sent fraccion to represent them, which struck Starrk as unfair, but then Shawlong and Tesra were less likely to disrupt the meeting than their masters, so he could see why Tōsen wasn't complaining. No sign of Szayelaporro. Baraggan was accompanied by several fraccion, who assembled his damn throne.

Starrk wondered if he could pull rank and make Baraggan give him the seat. Probably not without more trouble than it was worth.

Tōsen came in last, after far too long a delay considering Lilynette was running around unsupervised while he was stuck here. (The pet/prisoner probably wouldn't even slow her down.) Then, instead of introducing Starrk and letting him leave, he had all the division-leading shinigami report. They were still fighting an abnormally large number of Hollows in the Rukongai; Living World patrols continued to be quiet. Sixth was almost back up to strength but replacement officers were still learning. Second was still far below strength, and in particular could use some more help with the "Maggots' Nest" (how pleasant). Tōsen ordered Baraggan to have his fraccion assist (also pleasant). Twelfth had reports on "strange readings in the Precipice World" they were told to submit in writing. Some of the sworn shinigami were becoming discipline problems, but on the plus side they seemed to have got the message about not harassing Fourth.

The female vice-captain in a white coat cautiously asked about the status of division members gone up the hill who hadn't come back yet. The other non-yoked whitecoat (who had "69" on his face for some reason — Starrk was fairly sure shinigami weren't normally labeled with numbers and that there weren't sixty-nine of… anything in particular, so he didn't know what _that_ was about) hastily directed the conversation back to Hollows in the Rukongai and the casualties from dealing with them.

"We will alleviate this pressure," Tōsen said. "Aizen-sama has granted Seireitei a bankai asset."

And the empty-eyed shinigami Starrk had turned down walked in, followed by Zommari. There was a horrified gasp from some of the shinigami. At least someone had dressed him in the whitecoat uniform.

"This asset is held by Zommari Rureaux, the Septima Espada," Tōsen said. "I am in charge of its deployment."

"Just to clarify," said the shinigami with "69" on his face, "Sasakibe-san will not be returning to First Division?"

"Bankai assets will be managed centrally," Tōsen said. "And he is not currently capable of administrative work."

That was an understatement. The shinigami continued to look horrified — Starrk wondered if they knew this Sasakibe personally or if they were projecting his condition to their own missing captains — and no one brought up any new discussion topics.

"As well as Zommari, Primera Espada Coyote Starrk will also now be based in Seireitei," Tōsen said. "He is holding the yoke of Ushōda Hachigen, who will assist with the yoke redesign project." He paused. "Where is Ushōda?"

"Looking for a house," Starrk said. "With Lilynette. If I could be excused, Tōsen-sama, I really ought to go find them…"

Tōsen excused him immediately.

* * *

Starrk followed his sense of Lilynette to a house with a walled garden, some muffled explosions coming from inside, and a number of onlookers, both arrancar and shinigami, standing in the street. Sung-Sun spotted him first and held one hand up placatingly while pointing to Baraggan's fraccion with the other.

"They did it."

"I did not!" Ggio protested. "It was Charlotte."

Chuhlhourne crossed his arms. "I don't know why you're all so defensive, they seem to be doing fine in there."

There was another explosion.

"What," Starrk said.

One of the whitecoat shinigami coughed nervously. "That's, um, a secondary Shihōin property."

It took a long moment for Starrk to place the name. "The cat woman?"

"No — well, yes, but — well, the family has longstanding ties to the, um, the Onmitsukidō, and their properties tend to be… trapped."

"And you sent them in there."

" _Charlotte_ sent them in there."

"I said I thought it would suit your purposes. Which it would!"

"Hiyori-chan went in with them," Sung-Sun said. "She said it would make her feel better to destroy some Shihōin property, and I'm not going to turn down anything that might improve her disposition."

Starrk would have been more annoyed if he'd been sensing any distress from Lilynette, but she felt more gleeful than anything else. So he just sighed, again, and trudged into the building.

He found Lilynette and Hachigen on the second floor, both apparently fascinated by the inner workings of what looked like it had been an unnecessarily complex deathtrap. Hachigen had a barrier up protecting them from the occasional shower of possibly poisoned needles coming out of the light fixture. From somewhere above them, there was another explosion and some shouting.

"Starrk!" Lilynette said. "Come look at this! Isn't it great? It used to make the hallway walls close in, but we broke it!"

"Great" was not the first description Starrk would have come up with.

"Not the most practical trap," Hachigen said. "Anyone with seated officer level strength could break out of it. I think it was mostly to show off — I think most of the traps here are because a Shihōin property _must_ be trapped."

"So you think you can get it usable in a day without destroying it?" Starrk asked.

"Yes, Starrk-sama." He glanced up. "Although I may need to ask Hiyori to dial it down a few notches."

"And get like a thousand cushions for Starrk," Lilynette said. "And food. And I want my own room, with a window. And like… pet things. What could we get as pet things? And… um… wolf pictures! I want wolf pictures."

Hachigen gave Starrk a questioning look. Starrk tried to convey the uselessness of arguing with Lilynette in this mood — just agree and change the terms later.

Instead, Hachigen said, "Some of that may have to wait until I've finished my assignment from Aizen-sama, Lilynette-sama."

She sulked. "Oh, fine. But you need to get Starrk the cushions, or he'll pout."

About at that point the female whitecoat lieutenant showed up with an armload of complicated kidō diagrams for Hachigen to read, and Starrk realized _he_ was going to have to go look for furnishings.

* * *

 **Hisagi Shūhei**

Hisagi had known anyone they released from the — _proving ground_ would be… he knew the idea was to break people. Sasakibe's condition was still, somehow, a terrible shock. It was worse for the others, he knew. Third Seat Okikiba had seemed to freeze up entirely. He'd been hustled away by Nanao and Iba after the meeting broke up — probably to Eighth for some of Kyōraku's sake. Isane had taken Sasakibe to the Fourth for an exam; the Septima followed. Hinamori vanished to look for the Primera and the Visored who was supposed to be helping redesign the yoke.

Hisagi had to go try to talk to Sasakibe.

He didn't know Sasakibe very well. He wasn't sure anyone knew Sasakibe very well, outside the Head Captain and maybe the senior captains. But _someone_ needed to try to talk to him. Nanao might have been better, but as an un-yoked technically-noble she really shouldn't take the risk of catching Tōsen's attention. Kira was probably also better, so Hisagi was bringing him, but as Tōsen's _lieutenant_ he needed to be there to hopefully prevent Zommari from interfering.

As it turned out, Zommari was completely indifferent to them. Kira probably could have come alone. Well, he wouldn't let Hisagi back out _now_. Isane stepped away from the bed with an anxious smile.

"He's… not physically injured, apart from a tiny bit of yoke damage. He's almost completely unresponsive to me, though. And the Septima has been using the yoke to get any response at all."

"Sasakibe-san," Hisagi said, and then stalled out. "I… thank you for bringing the orders back to Seireitei." Had that been a tiny flicker of eye movement? "Most of the Gotei 13 is intact because of it."

"The yoke is probably very distracting right now," Kira offered. "You do… get used to it, to some extent. If you have any questions Ōmaeda-san or I would be happy to answer them. Or Yadōmaru-san…"

Damn it, what to say. He couldn't mention First — First wasn't in the best of shape because way too many of them tried to swear allegiance and died rather than go through the proving ground, or worse (as far as talking to Sasakibe was concerned), _did_ go through the proving ground. He couldn't allude to the proving ground in front of Kira and Isane. He couldn't say anything remotely subversive in front of Zommari.

"I'm sure someone will be able to help you procure some tea," Kira was saying, and there was a little shift at that. Maybe.

Finally, Hisagi just said, "We'll be glad to have your help. The number of Hollows in the Rukongai is wildly out of control."

And then suddenly Zommari was looming menacingly in his face. "This again! By whose authority do you kill Hollows?!"

Honestly, how the hell had Aizen managed to round up Espada who made the Gotei 13's senior officers look sane and stable? No, forget how, _why_? "Tōsen-sama's, most recently…"

That brought Zommari's building rant to a screeching halt. He froze, mouth still open, then turned on his heel and strode out of Fourth.

"Is he… actually going to ask Tōsen-sama why he's having people purify Hollows?" Kira asked.

Hisagi shrugged helplessly. "Possibly?"

(He was… _mostly_ sure the question wouldn't trigger any sudden policy reversals from Tōsen, despite Tōsen's own… unusual status. Not if Aizen wanted the Realms balanced, anyway.)

"Er," Isane said. "Should I keep Sasakibe-san here for now, then…?"

Kira shook his head, and went and opened the examining room door. Half a dozen Fourth Division officers, three other officers, one whitecoat, one of Grimmjow's fraccion, one of Harribel's fraccion, and an _Academy student_ on crutches all abruptly tried to look like they merely happened to be passing down the hall just then. He closed the door. "Probably better not."

Isane rolled her eyes. "I'd say they know better, but really they don't… Do we have any idea where Zommari-san is going to be staying?"

" _I_ don't…" Hisagi grimaced. "I guess… I guess we have to take him back to First and ask Tōsen-sama."

He half-expected that to get a reaction — probably a negative one — but there was nothing. So, summing up… Sasakibe might be interested in tea, and that was all they had.

Maybe he could get this… _officially_ delegated to Kira somehow?

* * *

 **Unohana Retsu**

This time, Unohana was the one summoned urgently to the monitor room. She'd stayed up late going over archived recordings of the yokes in action, slept badly, and finally decided to take the day off from research and do physical training instead, just to clear her mind. Apparently it was not to be.

Ururu peeked into the workout hall. "Unohana-san? Yoruichi-san says you should come to the monitor room, one of the people with bankai is out of the castle." She paused. "Yoruichi-san says it's, um, bad."

It was Sasakibe.

And it was very bad.

"Do we know what happened — what was done to him?" she asked quietly as they watched Isane, Kira, and Hisagi escort Sasakibe out through the lobby of the Emergency Relief Center.

Yoruichi shook her head. "No, but I think Hisagi there knows more than he's saying."

"Hmm." She could see that — something in the tightness of his face, and how he never met Isane's eyes. The four left the lobby, and Tessai switched to an exterior view. "Was there anyone else released?"

"Not among the bankai users," Tessai rumbled. "Ushōda Hachigen. They want him to work on improving the yoke, I think." He pointed to another monitor, which showed the Fifth Division office overhead view, with diagrams covering the desk again and Hinamori pointing things out to Hachigen. "He seems… himself."

That made sense. "Any indication of why the Kidō Corps wasn't assigned to redesign the yoke to begin with?"

"No."

"Fuck if I know what goes on in Aizen's brain." Yoruichi scowled. "Kisuke thought he might have pawns in the Kidō Corps, so it seems like he could trust them with this…"

Unohana sighed unhappily. "Then he probably intended to accomplish something by assigning it to Hinamori-chan."

From what Unohana had been able to observe, Hinamori was handling her new position… surprisingly well. Which wasn't to say that she was happy or healthy — she was exhausted and miserable — but she was… sane, more or less. Probably not much worse off than Hisagi.

…Or at least, she hadn't been much worse off to begin with.

Being required to work on something you weren't qualified for was stressful for most people even without the threat of dire consequences. Could Aizen be actively trying to make her break? There wasn't much Unohana could do about it if he was, but…

"Would it be possible for me to look at all the recordings we have of Hinamori-fukutaichō?" she asked. "Preferably in order?"

Yoruichi looked at Tessai. "How much trouble would that be?"

"I can do it!" Jinta volunteered.

"No, you can't," Tessai said.

"Well, I could do it if you'd let me look at everything," Jinta said sulkily.

"No, you can't," Yoruichi said.

" _Urahara-san_ would let me look at the recordings, and if you hadn't left him—"

He broke off mid-whine and crashed back into the secondary monitor. The screen cracked. After a beat of shock, Ururu, who had punched him, burst into tears and fled. Jinta flushed as red as his hair, and took off in the other direction.

Tessai sighed heavily. "One of the mod souls can do it. I must make sure neither of them does anything foolish."

Yoruichi winced. "Maybe I shouldn't have said anything."

"I think something like this was coming," Tessai replied soberly. "They have been coping well with the stress, but they are only children."

* * *

 **Kurosaki Ichigo**

He had to leave the _asauchi_ at the house when he went for yoke checkups or — rarely — anywhere else. On the one hand anything that kept him away from it was annoying. He could hear Zangetsu and his Hollow pretty consistently when he was holding the _asauchi_ , though he couldn't always understand what they were saying. (Especially Zangetsu. The Hollow was almost always insulting him.) On the other hand, that kind of restriction did make him feel like Grimmjow was taking him seriously. Somehow.

It still made him feel kind of naked. (Despite way too much recent experience actually being naked in front of people.)

"Maybe I could learn kidō?" he said to Rukia as they approached Fourth Division. "I'm sick of being weaponless."

She gave him an infuriatingly dubious look. "That's… theoretically possible, I suppose."

"Shouldn't having lower reiatsu make it easier?"

"Have you ever even tried to do kidō?"

"I'm not thinking it will be a natural strength, I just think now might be a good time to try it." Rukia's busy most of the time, so— "Maybe you could get me a book or something?"

The dubious look turned outright alarmed. "No. You are _not_ trying to teach yourself kidō."

"Oh, come on! You don't have to sound like it would be a complete disaster."

"Oh yes I do."

Nnoitra's fraccion was standing awkwardly in front of Fourth. Ichigo made a wide circle around him. Grimmjow's fraccion seemed to think what's-his-name was really mild and wimpy, but Ichigo vividly remembered being gleefully kicked while he was down. Since he was pretty sure he still counted as 'down', he'd keep his distance.

(He hadn't met all that many Espada, true, but of those he had met Nnoitra was the worst. By a lot. Even Ulquiorra wouldn't get his kicks abusing a couple of civilians.) (He'd probably kill them on sight instead, but that wasn't as disgusting.) (Enough about Nnoitra.)

According to the gossip Rukia had heard yesterday, Hachigen should be here, and so should… some very distinguished shinigami guy. Sasa-something? He didn't see either just inside the Emergency Relief Center, but there _was_ a small arrancar hassling the shinigami on desk duty. As Ichigo and Rukia passed, the officer pulled a box labeled "Kusajishi" from under the desk and started offering the arrancar candy.

"Oh, here's Ichigo," Lisa said, poking her head out of one of the examining rooms. "Hachi's here, come say hi."

There was a limit to how pathetic he wanted to look in front of Mashiro or Hiyori, but he was in pretty good shape this morning — nothing he couldn't have gotten from one of the worse bully fights in Karakura. Plus the yoke, of course. "I'm going to…"

"I'm supposed to be heading out to the West Fifties today, so I shouldn't stop to visit," Rukia demurred.

Ichigo nodded, frustrated again at being grounded when they _needed him_. (But he wouldn't be forever.) "Be safe. See you tonight." They shook on it, then she went to find Isane and he went in to see Hachigen.

The blond glasses-wearing Third Seat — wait, his name was Iemura! — was examining Hachi's yoke and giving pointed looks which Lisa and Mashiro were ignoring and Hiyori was returning with interest. He did not look happy to see Ichigo. Not in the room, at least. "If you could save visiting until I am _not working_ —"

"When you're not working we will be working, so no, we can't," Lisa said. "Well, the three of us are working, anyway."

"I'm not, but take it up with Shawlong," Ichigo said.

"And I'm afraid between working on the yoke redesign and assisting my master in setting up his residence, my time is also in demand," Hachigen finished. "It is good to see you, Ichigo."

"Same." He sort of wanted to ask about Shinji and the others. "I'd say you look like hell, but so does literally everyone else here, so whatever."

Hachigen smiled faintly. "You are all still a sight for sore eyes. I didn't see many people before, but…"

Lisa's expression darkened. "Apparently, today I get to shadow the _bankai asset_ to make sure it's _fully functional_."

"Yes. I saw him briefly up in the castle, and I… would not count on him being functional. At least not until Zommari learns how to… direct him efficiently."

"Do you know what they did to him to make him like that?" Iemura asked. He winced at Hiyori's poisonous glare, but pressed on, "Kotetsu-fukutaichō couldn't find anything — physically wrong…"

"I don't know, I'm sorry. As for physical injuries—" He broke off. "I'm sorry, Ichigo, I should have told you when you arrived — Orihime-san was in good health, last I saw her. Doing her best to take care of everyone, as much as she could in the length of a healing."

Ichigo closed his eyes for a moment. That — wasn't exactly a surprise, but it was still good to hear. "Thank you."

Ulquiorra had better be protecting her from everyone worse than Ulquiorra, or Ichigo would _double_ kick his ass when he got his powers back.

* * *

 **Coyote Starrk**

With the traps gone or disabled, the house was indeed… suitable. It had enough room to house the threatened four or more shinigami prisoners without them being underfoot. It had pleasant grounds which might be nice for napping in. (The grounds were probably trapped, too, but Starrk was confident in his ability to survive and/or break out of anything he triggered. It might even be a satisfactory excuse to miss a meeting or two.) It had apparently been unused for some time, but almost everything still worked and what didn't work Hachigen could either fix or knew how to arrange to get it fixed.

Hachigen had _definitely_ been the right one to pick. He even knew how to cook, when he wasn't busy doing… assigned kidō things. Starrk bet the bankai asset shinigami didn't help with household tasks or navigating Seireitei at all. (From what Starrk heard, he wasn't much good at being a bankai asset unless directed, and there had been a near-disaster in the field due to Zommari's unwillingness to direct him to destroy Hollows, so now _Cirucci_ , of all people, was authorized to give him orders.)

He wasn't much good for distracting Lilynette — he'd just bribe her to leave him be and she'd come back to bother Starrk — but that was what the pet _she_ wanted was for. The only real downside was that he did seem to come with socializing with Harribel's three pets, and that meant way too much interaction with Harribel's fraccion. (Which was to say _any_ interaction with Harribel's fraccion. Although they had supplied the Zommari gossip.)

(Also the little blond Visored and Lilynette were a bad combination. They either squabbled violently and destroyed something or teamed up and destroyed something.)

No, living in Seireitei wasn't bad at all. He had better make the most of it before Aizen dropped more prisoners on him. Hachigen seemed to genuinely be not too much trouble, but he wouldn't count on getting lucky again.

* * *

 **Hinamori Momo**

Hinamori would have to come up with some way to sufficiently thank Yadōmaru-san. (Maybe she could ask Mashiro-san what would be most appreciated.) Ushōda-san was — was _perfect_. He _knew what he was doing_. And as a bonus, he wasn't too harsh about her awful mistakes, instead gently pointing out where she'd been on the right track but had used the wrong substitution, or where she'd misinterpreted some part of the original design.

She had the workspace — or study space, at least — set up in what had been the Fifth Division captain's office. They were only occasionally interrupted by Division business; her Third Seat was doing most of her work. They were interrupted a few times by the other Visored, twice by messages from the children, once by an unexpected summons from Tōsen, and she didn't know how many times by the Primera's… fraccion? Other half? Whichever, she really wanted attention. Mostly to do with furnishing their residence, apparently. She finally picked one of the not-previously-Fifth-Division whitecoats and ordered him to assist the Primera in settling in.

"She's going to run him into the ground," Ushōda-san warned.

"He deserves it, he's terribly insubordinate to anyone not a sworn shinigami." And he had been a _complete_ ass to Fourth Division. A nervous giggle escaped. "I'm sorry, I hope that won't cause trouble for you, Ushōda-san?"

"Most people call me Hachigen-san, Hinamori-fukutaichō," he said. "And I wouldn't think it would. Starrk-sama seems… fairly laid-back."

"And, um, the little girl?"

"Lilynette-chan. Or Lilynette-sama, as she would prefer." Hachigen nodded. "I intend to see if she can be bribed with sweets."

By the following evening — the end of Hachigen's first full day of work — he had a trial design ready to go. Hinamori insisted he take another day to double-check everything, and still another instructing her in how to apply it, before she took it up the hill.

"It will be demonstrated on a person," she said, and was grateful when he didn't ask for details.

(Aizen had erased most of the blood from her kosode before dismissing her. The remaining specks seemed indelible, and must have been a — taunt, she decided eventually. Not enough to spoil the clothing, just enough that she'd always know it was there, and remember how the skin just _split—)_

(He'd flinched away from her when she tried to help him up, after the healing. Only for a second, but it was real.)

The redesigned yoke went on without a hiccup and came off leaving not even a bruise. Hitsugaya never raised his head or met her eyes. Aizen's little half-smile never changed.

"Very good, Hinamori-kun," Aizen said when the Loly and Menoly arrancar had escorted Hitsugaya out again. "I see Hachigun-kun has been helpful."

"Hai, Aizen-sama. Thank you for permitting me the assistance." She would not call him Aizen-taichō if he didn't corner her into it. "I'm very grateful." She bowed.

"We will have to see about setting up a good time for switching out all the yokes," Aizen said. "In the meantime…" He made a vague gesture, and a packet of papers appeared in front of Hinamori. She failed to catch it before it hit the floor and had to scramble for it, but at least it hadn't come apart. "This is another yoke design assignment for Hachigen-kun — please relay it to him as soon as possible. Since he has such talent in this area, I'd like him to work out some… specialty versions."

Her heart hurt. "Hai, Aizen-sama. I will."


	10. Days 28-29

See first chapter for warnings. This chapter appearing here, astonishingly, almost immediately after AO3 – also immediately after the Days 22-27 was posted here, so if you haven't read that, go back a chapter.

* * *

 **Kotetsu Isane**

Isane _agreed_ with the decision to replace the yokes within Fourth Division, where healers could be standing by. They'd seen the effects of yoke removal on civilians, and they'd been ugly. If the location hadn't been dictated from on high, she would have asked Gantenbainne to at least try to get Dordoni to bring his servant in.

She just felt the whole thing could have been arranged in a much less insane way. Perhaps starting with _not having all the yoke-holding arrancar in Fourth at the same time_ , that would probably help a _lot_.

(Baraggan would probably still be blocking traffic with that damned throne, though. She was really starting to hate that throne.)

As it was, she was… busy. First with tending to Ise Nobume and Nariko; their yoke injuries weren't too bad, but there were plenty of other things to take care of. Improving the yoke wasn't likely to make things much better for them. Nariko was stubborn and sardonic; Nobume was just brittle.

Isane wanted to at least assure them that Noriyo and Katae were doing well under Hinamori's care, but she wasn't sure it was her place, and was even less sure she should mention the children with Nnoitra's fraccion in the room. Nnoitra himself was absent, which was a small relief, until she considered that he couldn't have gone far (since he couldn't delegate the re-yoking) and what else he might be getting into in the meantime.

She should probably figure out what he was doing. She couldn't do much besides send a hell butterfly to Tōsen asking him to step in, but she had to at least do that. And she also needed to make sure everything else was under control.

"You don't need to wait for a check-up after the new yoke has been applied before you leave," she said, half to Nariko and half to the fraccion. "But come in tomorrow morning to make sure everything's as expected."

"I'll tell Nnoitra-sama," the fraccion said. "When he… gets back."

Did he not know where Nnoitra was, either? Nothing she could do about it either way.

Check the first of the rest of the examining rooms given over to the yoke transition — Sasakibe was still empty-eyed, but the yoke hadn't left any real injuries, and he'd been cleared and re-yoked. Therefore, Zommari _could_ have taken him and _left_. However, he had not. Shinigami were advised not to attempt to talk to Zommari unnecessarily, so she left that for the moment. Hopefully Zommari would bring Sasakibe in for a checkup in the morning, but even if he didn't Sasakibe should be all right for however long it took for Tōsen to order Zommari in line.

Second room — Iemura trying to stabilize Nasu Rokurō and Dordoni trying to flirt with a nurse. No surprises there. (Gantenbainne had assured her that Dordoni wouldn't take a turndown badly, at least not from a stranger trying to work, so she just made sure everyone who had to deal with Dordoni was a seasoned veteran of dealing with Kyōraku.) Iemura had that in hand, so she moved on.

Third examining room — Ogidō cleaning up. He looked up at her sheepishly. "Sorry, vice-captain — I know you wanted to check on all the cases, but the Cuatro seemed to be in a hurry, the yoke injuries weren't bad, and there weren't any injuries besides the yoke injuries…"

She couldn't really reprimand him for not wanting to argue with Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra managed to be far more terrifying than Nnoitra despite never having actually _done_ anything where they could see it. "Write everything up and have it on my desk by this evening." She could at least be confident that Ulquiorra would have his… charges back for the checkup.

Fourth examining room — Rukia holding a gauze pad to the worst of the cuts on her shoulders, and Hanatarō working on Ichigo, who was in _much_ better condition than the civilian despite his loss of powers. But then, the yoke's effects on him had been getting less severe as time passed. She guessed Grimmjow was right about Ichigo being able to get his powers back?

…Speaking of whom, Grimmjow was not in the room. His fraccion Shawlong was, frowning at an old copy of the _Seireitei Communication_ , but no Sexta.

…Hopefully he wasn't off picking a fight with Nnoitra.

…At least not inside the Emergency Relief Station. That wasn't too much to ask for, was it?

"Is everything okay in here?" she asked, instead of asking about Grimmjow specifically.

"I'm almost done with Ichigo-san, and then Rukia-san shouldn't take long," Hanatarō reported. "I took care of all the other injuries before Grimmjow-san took the yokes off." He paused, and blinked, evidently noticing Grimmjow's absence.

"He's looking into something," Shawlong said.

Hopefully not into picking a fight with Nnoitra. "Well, let me know if you need anything."

Shawlong just frowned harder at the magazine. She hoped he didn't ask her to explain anything. Was that the issue with the haiku competition?

"Did Ulquiorra go by a minute ago?" Ichigo asked. "What was _he_ doing here?"

"He holds the yoke on some Academy personnel," Isane said, a little surprised. "I don't think he does much with them besides enforce orders."

"…Oh." Ichigo subsided into glaring at nothing in particular.

"Mass check-up on the new yoke is tomorrow morning," she reminded them, and moved on.

The fifth room was currently inaccessible through the main door because of the _throne_. Rather than try to squeeze past Baraggan, the medical team had knocked a door through the back of a supply closet. Isane made her way past the shelves of bandages and tonics to find her Sixth Seat standing by awkwardly, and Kira, Yumichika, and Ōmaeda still in the original yokes. Yumichika and Chuhlhourne were sniping at each other, but otherwise Isane didn't see any reason for the delay.

"Is… something the matter?" she asked after a moment.

"Not that I know of?" the Sixth Seat said. "I've said we can get started any time…"

Kira cleared his throat, and shot a glance at the fraccion standing around. "I think Baraggan-sama is… observing the other Espada who are here, and doesn't want to… miss any observation opportunities."

Ah. Arrancar politics, then. Isane wondered if he knew where Nnoitra and Grimmjow had wandered off too, but she could hardly ask. "I see. I… understand that Tōsen-sama _is_ expecting all of this to be done by the end of the day, so…"

"We'll remind them," Yumichika said.

"And then there's supposed to be a check-up tomorrow…"

Kira nodded understanding. "We'll be here." At least with all three of them active shinigami, they didn't have to worry about being let out or escorted.

Sixth room — Utsunomiya Tomomoto by himself, new yoke in place, all healed up. Isane blinked. "Where's Sanderwicci-san?"

Utsunomiya winced. "I think, um, I think Cirucci-sama went to, um. Check on Sasakibe-san. I'm supposed to wait for her."

At least Cirucci had the self-preservation instinct not to start a fight with Zommari, in the Emergency Relief Station or otherwise. Isane was mostly sure she did, at least. "Please remember to come in again tomorrow to make sure the new yoke is as undamaging as intended?"

"Yes, Kotetsu-fukutaichō."

Strange, now that she thought about it. The Privaron Espada seemed relatively rational, and so did the top four Espada — heart-freezingly terrifying, but rational. It was the _middle_ bunch that were varying degrees of off-the-wall insane.

Speaking of which… Kurotsuchi Nemu had been assigned to the seventh room, so Szayelaporro should be in there, too. Isane had heard more than she'd seen of the Octava, but she'd heard plenty, so she'd asked for a volunteer to check Nemu over rather than order anyone to risk themselves. Happily, her Fourth Seat looked intact, as did Nemu. (Not that the last was a surprise. Nemu was frighteningly resilient.)

"Szayelaporro-sama has stepped out to look in on Twelfth," Nemu said. Then, still placidly, "Do you know what progress Akon has made in reassigning superfluous personnel?"

Away from possible lab specimen status. …Or _additional_ lab specimen status. "There were enough losses in other divisions that all the non-SRDI officers could be absorbed immediately." Fourth had grabbed a few younger researchers, too, who could at least pass for medical techs.

Nemu nodded. "Good. Szayelaporro-sama believes he will only be required to search Las Noches for four more days, and then he can be based in Seireitei."

That… was not good news. Hanatarō would be distraught. But Isane just nodded, and instructed Nemu to come in to have the replacement yoke checked when she could, if not tomorrow, or immediately if symptoms worsened.

And now… there were not as many rooms left as she was expecting, and not as many people in the room there was as she was expecting. "Where's Yadōmaru-san?" she asked.

Mashiro pouted. "She had to go do _additional yoke testing_ up the hill and she's not back yet."

That was… concerning. Isane glanced quickly at the Tercera, who was standing with arms folded, unreadable behind her high collar. No hints there. But the one fraccion in attendance — the dark one, Mila Rose — was scowling almost as hard as Hiyori.

As was usual, the Visored had only superficial yoke injuries, easily treated. Isane saw to them quickly, avoiding Hiyori's constant glower, before stepping back. "You can apply the new yoke now, Tercera-san."

The Tercera nodded briefly, and manifested one of the new yokes in her hand. Mashiro winced dramatically in anticipation, and quite genuinely on application, but held still without prompting. Hiyori got a hand on her shoulder to restrain what looked like a fierce, if brief, struggle. (The Espada were so _strong_.) Both yokes went on cleanly, with no blood spilled.

"Please come in tomorrow to make sure everything is as expected," Isane said, and avoided Hiyori's eyes harder after she caught a glimpse of the blame in them.

"Mashiro and Hiyori will be here tomorrow," the Tercera said, moving towards the door. "I will bring Lisa… as soon as possible. Come."

Mashiro and Hiyori followed immediately, perforce, but Mila Rose paused on her way after them. "Oh, and they called Hachigen up there, too. I'm sure Starrk forgot to inform you, or maybe tried to send Lilynette with a message, and she wandered off."

That explained that. "Ah, yes. Thank you, Mila Rose-san."

The fraccion just waved over her shoulder, and sauntered out.

A sudden dramatic flare of reiatsu abruptly revealed the locations of both Nnoitra and Grimmjow — mercifully, just _outside_ the gates of Fourth Division. Isane decided that was just going to have to be someone else's problem.

* * *

 **Yadōmaru Lisa**

The order that Lisa accompany Hachi to the castle for yoke testing was extremely unwelcome. Alarming, in fact. And it would have been alarming even before she saw what a stay in the castle had done to Sasakibe, but after…

She had never _liked_ Sasakibe all that much, even before exile. She'd respected him, of course, but she wasn't particularly fond of tea ceremonies, English tea non-ceremonies, other tea-centered activities, or total adulation of one's leaders. They didn't have much in common. And then after the whole fiasco, he was just one of the most slavish devotees of the system which condemned them.

Seeing him like that was still profoundly unnerving. Frightening. In the field it was even worse. For a more than competent officer to just stand and stare blankly while _Hollows were attacking_ —

She'd almost left it too late to intervene. Zommari was _supposed_ to order Sasakibe to fight, but _he_ just stood and _glowered_. The Seventh Division officers hadn't seemed to know what to do — they wanted to rely on Sasakibe, they were supposed to be relying on Sasakibe, they clearly could not rely on Sasakibe—

Lisa had jumped in before anyone could be killed, but there were some injuries which could have been avoided if she'd moved earlier, or if Zommari had _done his damn job_.

Cirucci, according to Hiyori, had done a much better job the following day. (Not that Hiyori put it that way.) There was a lot of unnecessary whip-cracking, but the Hollows got purified.

The _point_ was, whatever they were doing in the castle had all but destroyed a shinigami older and stronger than Lisa, and she wasn't eager to see it firsthand.

Hachi was more or less fine, but Hachi hadn't given Hinamori a way out of the corner Aizen had backed her into.

At least, he hadn't before. Shit.

Harribel being twitchy about the whole thing didn't make Lisa any less worried, either. She didn't _trust_ the Espada, exactly, but… well, she trusted Harribel to want them more or less intact. So she sort of trusted her. Shit. She hadn't planned on that. Was this what they called Stockholm Syndrome? _Fuck_.

Hinamori had escorted them up the long stairs in the not-Senzaikyū. She kept trying to smile, but it was a dismal failure. It was not reassuring.

Aizen's throne room was… she had just decided on 'stupid-looking' as the best description when Aizen appeared and his reiatsu knocked both her and Hachi to their knees.

The reiatsu subsided a bit, enough that they could see him _smiling_. "I've called you here to test some of the new yoke designs I asked you for, Hachigen-kun."

Hachi blanched. Hinamori blanched more.

Hachi already had the new yoke on. Lisa had nothing.

 _Shit_.

This was going to suck.

* * *

 **Kira Izuru**

The morning yoke check-ups had been down to a more or less smooth routine, but the morning of the _new_ yoke inspections most certainly was not. It wasn't quite as bad as the previous day's chaos when everyone was supposed to be getting the yokes replaced — Baraggan hadn't come, which improved things already — but it was still everyone at once, with inconveniently many arrancar running around. And then, just in case Fourth Division hadn't felt busy enough, Hisagi and a squad from Ninth came back from fighting an oddly-powered group of Huge Hollows with a variety of interesting injuries.

Which wasn't to say they didn't _also_ have some interesting injuries from Baraggan and fraccion testing for themselves that the new design of the yoke was equally effective, but it was nothing life-threatening.

"They're not going to get to us any time soon unless we push for it," Yumichika said, reclining on an exam table. Clearly he wasn't planning to, despite how much he'd limped coming in and how much he'd complained about the ugliness of broken fingers the night before. Ōmaeda had dropped into a chair and didn't look like he'd be moving anytime soon. The pain wasn't enough to make Kira try to put himself forward, either, when there were actual combat casualties around. Third wasn't going out today, so Kira didn't _need_ to be done quickly.

And he didn't have any arrancar there to insist he get seen to immediately — one of Grimmjow's fraccion towed a badly limping and bruised Kurosaki Ichigo up to a Fourth Division officer and started gesturing impatiently, until they were ushered back.

Kuchiki Rukia was slightly less bruised, slightly less limping, and turned loose upon arrival. She shuffled over and leaned on another table. "Yours insist on testing the new yoke, too?" she asked tiredly.

"Some people can't take anything on faith," Yumichika sniffed.

"I wouldn't describe Baraggan-sama or his fraccion as _ours_ ," Kira murmured. "But yes. No yoke injuries for any of us. You? And Kurosaki, I know without his powers…"

"He's been seeing some real improvement there, actually—"

She was interrupted by the small, unpleasant Visored stomping up and grabbing her elbow. "What is that blue-haired asshole _doing_ to Ichigo?" Sarugaki demanded. Clearly she wasn't injured at all.

Rukia gave her a measuring look. "Most relevantly, having him fight a lot."

"What do you _think_ he's doing to him?" Yumichika said. "The same thing that's getting done to all the rest of us. Except you, because Yadōmaru took the fall for all three of you."

Kira winced. That was accurate, but cruel.

"I see Mashiro, but where _is_ Lisa-san?" Rukia asked. "And Hachi-san?"

Sarugaki scowled even harder. "They both got summoned to the castle yesterday. Some sort of final test of the revised yoke, or something, and no, I have no fucking idea why they wanted _Lisa_ for that."

"That's… worrying."

"No shit." Sarugaki crossed her arms and lowered her voice. "I think Harribel-sama was expecting her back by now, too, and she's not happy about it. I think she's gone to see what's going on. She told the fraccion to _escort_ us here, and we're not supposed to leave without them, like they're supposed to be _protecting_ us or something."

Kira noted, not for the first time, that the Tercera seemed to have a very different attitude towards her pets than Baraggan did. But then he guessed all the Espada — all the arrancar — were different.

Which reminded him— "I think I saw Ulquiorra with Zommari — does anyone know what he was doing here? I didn't know he had — had pets."

"According to Grimmjow-sama, he doesn't, exactly. He was assigned to hold the yokes of some senior Academy faculty." Rukia's mouth twitched. "He said that's what Ulquiorra got for being loyal and boring."

"Oh, that makes sense." At least Ulquiorra, unlike Zommari, was hopefully unlikely to alter the curriculum to remove all mention of purifying Hollows… Kira frowned. "What about the Kidō Corps?"

Ōmaeda spoke for the first time. "Apparently the Kidō Corps was already heavily suborned — Suì-Fēng-taichō was trying to root that out, but never had time to finish — and most of the rest are… apolitical."

That was more than a little unnerving when you considered how much Seireitei depended on the Kido Corps, but Kira decided not to pursue it. "I wonder if they're going to let more arrancar have pets now that the yoke is less likely kill them?"

"The fraccion want a new one now that I'm off limits most nights," Rukia said with a grimace.

"The Sexta asked if I had any shinigami sisters," Sixteenth Seat Utsunomiya said, looking beleaguered. When had he slunk up?

"Do you?" Yumichika asked.

" _No_."

"Hopefully they'll pull new pets from the nobles or the retainers," Mashiro said. "So no one else will have to dress up like _this_." She tried to rest her chin on Hiyori's head and was violently elbowed off.

"That seems… extreme," Kira said.

"It's easy for _you_ ," Mashiro said, pouting. "You're a current vice-captain, everyone knows who you are and knows you're yoked, and if they don't know who you are they see the badge and then they know. Every time I meet a new person I have to take my shirt off to prove I didn't sell my soul to Aizen-sama."

"No, you _really_ don't," Hiyori said.

Mashiro ignored her. "And now that it's not leaving bloodstains on the collar it'll be even worse!"

"People are getting to know you quickly enough," Rukia pointed out.

"Only partially because she takes her shirt off as an introduction," Yumichika added in an undertone.

"There are only three of you and you're everywhere, backing people up. I expect most of us assigned to a single squad are still mistaken for sworn shinigami by everyone else."

Utsunomiya nodded glumly. "People keep being scared of me. Especially in Fourth."

"If Sanderwicci keeps whipping your ass so you keep coming in every morning, eventually you'll know everyone in Fourth. Problem solved," Hiyori said. Utsunomiya turned red.

"It's a shame there isn't a specific yoke uniform," Yumichika sighed. "Maybe something a little more flattering."

Ōmaeda snorted. "Maybe a big orange cloth yoke thing?"

"Ex _cuse_ me?"

The rest of the group collectively, palpably decided not to get involved in a style argument between Ōmaeda and Yumichika. Good call. Kira considered telling them how lucky they were Chuhlhourne wasn't around to jump in.

"I bet Ishida could come up with something good," Rukia said glumly. "Although it might have crosses in the lining. And we'd have to veto any capes."

"Sorry, who?" Kira asked.

"Ishida Uryū. From Karakura. He was in the handicrafts club and sewed all his own uniforms — he's a Quincy, I don't think he could get them anywhere else. He's really fast, too. He made the most elaborate doll costumes in minutes. He'd probably be able to whip up something which said 'not in any way a voluntary convert but nonetheless entrusted with a weapon'. Or… whatever we need it to say."

She was talking about him like he was alive, but — no, the Quincy had been in Hueco Mundo, not the town. "Where is he now?"

"Twelfth," she said, even more glumly. "Waiting for Szayelaporro to get back from… whatever the hell he's been doing trying to catch Kurotsuchi. Except they're about ready to give up on that — a few more days, Yylfordt says. At which point… I'm guessing he's not supposed to kill Ishida or Sado? Maybe? But even under Kurotsuchi there was a lot of stuff that didn't rule out…"

"Well, that sounds like a waste," Sung-Sun said from the doorway. "Hiyori, Mashiro, time to go."

"We still need to get checked to make sure—"

"Time to get checked and _then_ go, then. You're not hurt, it shouldn't take long, and there are too many people in here."

As the two Visored were hustled away by the fraccion, Yumichika shook his head. "I really do not understand them."

* * *

 **Shihōin Yoruichi**

Back in the bunker again, Yoruichi discarded her latest disguise gigai with a little more care — it actually wasn't a bad fit, and even if she didn't go out again as this particular foreign tourist, it could still be modified for reuse. She would have preferred to go out as a cat, but Tessai and Unohana both insisted it was too much of a risk. (Obviously Aizen knew she could turn into a cat, the idea was it would be too much trouble to observe _every single black cat in Japan_.) As it was, she'd played "oblivious spiritually-blind human" to wander right up to a couple of shinigami and listen to them while pretending to puzzle over a map.

It sounded like Tessai was in the kitchen with Jinta and Ururu, so she headed for the monitor room.

(She was avoiding Jinta to minimize drama, not because she felt guilty. There was nothing to feel guilty about. If it had been safe to get Kisuke they would have gotten him, and it had been more Unohana's call than hers, anyway. This was just minimizing drama, and not wanting to deal with bratty children. Bratty child. Ururu was all right.)

"Yoruichi-san, I'm glad you're back safely." Unohana was watching Fourth Division again. It looked busy. "Is there any news?"

"Not much we haven't already worked out," Yoruichi replied. "Listened in on a couple of unseated officers gossiping. Sounds like Sasakibe is at least as bad off as he looks, which has everyone even more worried about the other people with bankai who are still up in the castle." Understandably. She had faith in Kisuke to be more durable than Sasakibe, but Aizen was also more likely to be _interested_ in him. "Oh, but they also talked about the 'sworn shinigami' a little — some of them are causing problems, abusing their positions."

Unohana nodded, unsurprised — then her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I wonder if that has anything to do with why so many of my division members are going out in pairs."

Yoruichi shrugged. "It could be, but there are all those arrancar around, too. Also, to become a sworn shinigami, there's some sort of test. No one is allowed to discuss it, but it's rumored to be difficult, and those who don't pass it don't come back."

"…Interesting." Unohana eyed the one sworn shinigami in view on the monitors. "I suppose we're not likely to find out more without getting some intelligence from inside the castle — or interviewing a sworn shinigami."

"Hmm. I haven't seen any in the world of the living." Yoruichi also looked at the sole visible example. "They seem to mostly be working in the Rukongai."

"Because that's where the worst Hollows are, and the world of the living can be handled by unseated officers without shikai," Unohana agreed. "But if there were to be a more serious Hollow outbreak in the world of the living… they would have to send someone more powerful. Either a sworn shinigami, or someone with a yoke."

"Which could provide other… opportunities." Yoruichi considered. "They might send weak shinigami with arrancar backup, but…"

"That might _also_ provide opportunities, if the arrancar could be… _plausibly_ overwhelmed." Unohana's smile was _sharper_ than usual.

Yoruichi smiled back. "So it might."

"Can you ask your Quincy acquaintance for Hollow bait?" Unohana asked.

"Or Tessai might be able to whip something up." Hmm. "We'll have to pick a good spot. Somewhere it's plausible for Hollows to show up, but also somewhere it wouldn't be catastrophic if Seireitei dropped the ball on dealing with it, because we couldn't interfere without breaking cover. And Tessai might have good arguments against it. But… I think it's a plan."

 _Damn_ it felt good to have a plan.

"In the meantime, though, what's going on in Fourth? Hang on, is that Ichigo?" He was just leaving, escorted by Shawlong, so Yoruichi quickly brought up the view of the street just outside the Emergency Relief Station on another monitor. Ichigo was gesticulating and trying to yank his arm out of Shawlong's grip. He looked healthy, which wasn't surprising for _leaving_ Fourth, but it was noteworthy that the skin of his neck around the yoke didn't look irritated at all.

"The new design of the yoke seems to be much less damaging," Unohana said.

"Good." Hopefully it wasn't more effective to go with it. "Wonder what Ichigo's arguing about — wish we could get more reliable sound on these things—" She broke off as the green-haired Primera girl — Lilynette, she thought — ran on screen and grabbed Ichigo by the front of his yukata. "Hello." Now she _really_ wished they were getting sound.

Ichigo responded to whatever the girl said to him — the angle wasn't very good for lip-reading, but Yoruichi thought she made out a 'why the hell are you asking me'. Shawlong looked like he wanted to pry the girl off his charge but didn't quite dare touch her. Then he looked up and briefly looked openly dismayed before his expression smoothed out and the Tercera's fraccion ambled on screen, trailing a scowling Hiyori.

"I am forced to admit I find some enjoyment in watching lower-ranked male arrancar deal with those three," Unohana said.

"I'll admit it happily," Yoruichi grinned.

She did wonder what the hell the conversation was about, though.

* * *

 **Ishida Uryū**

Szayelaporro only had to search for Kurotsuchi for three more days, then he'd be in Seireitei — in Twelfth Division — indefinitely. Sado had stepped up his attempts to get them out somehow, but Uryū was… not accepting, exactly… not at peace, but… He was going to meet his fate with dignity.

(Sado had described him to Hanatarō as being "too tired to fight", which was not true. It was about dignity.)

He'd never admit it, but it helped that he was pretty sure that nonstop attention from Szayelaporro would kill him in a week or less. He didn't dare try to console Sado with that, though. It wouldn't _be_ a consolation for him, it would be Uryū leaving him alone in Twelfth. He did feel bad about that, but not enough to want to endure Szayelaporro indefinitely. Maybe they'd be able to get Sado out, since the Espada wasn't so interested in him.

He'd have to make sure Kurosaki knew it wasn't his fault. Maybe a letter?

Uryū was lying on his cot, contemplating what he'd write to Ryūken if he had the opportunity, when a commotion started outside somewhere.

"We had three more days—" Sado started, and then the outer door blew in and one of Szayelaporro's fraccion hit the bars and slid to the floor.

Uryū made the effort to sit up. This looked like it might be different.

"That's them, are you happy now?"

A whole crowd of people spilled into the room. Several unfamiliar female arrancar seemed to be in charge. One of them was holding Akon by the lab coat. Another of Szayelaporro's fraccion was flailing ineffectively at the arrancar in the lead.

"I warned you," the arrancar said. "Hiyori-chan, you can take this one."

"Hiyori-chan" was a short blond — not exactly a shinigami, from her reiatsu, more like what Kurosaki was — a Visored, they were called — with a hideous scowl on her face. Probably due to being called "Hiyori-chan". But her obvious displeasure didn't stop her from slamming the fraccion across the room into the bars like the first one.

…A Visored, but with a weird… _thing_ stuck to her, a tangle of shinigami and Hollow power with tendrils all through her. It was anchored at her neck. That, Uryū supposed, would be the yoke.

One of the female arrancar giggled into her sleeve. "And the next one goes to Lilynette! So you might want to back off." She turned to Uryū. "You're the Quincy, aren't you?"

Some questions he might refuse to answer, but never that. "I am."

"And you were the star of the… 'Handicrafts Club'?"

Uryū blinked. "I — what?"

A small arrancar with half a helmet bounced forward. "You can sew and shit really good, right?"

This still made no sense, but fine. He would not be ashamed of his skills. "I can."

The arrancar holding Akon tossed her hair. "Fine. We'll take him. Open the cage."

Akon winced. "Szayelaporro-sama—"

"Isn't here, and Harribel-sama outranks him, so we outrank his flunkies, so hand over the tailor."

"And I'm half the Primera!" said the little girl arrancar, and punched Akon in the groin.

Uryū adjusted his glasses. "May I ask what's going on?" he asked the Visored.

She sneered at him, then scowled harder and scratched at her shoulder. "They heard the Kuchiki girl talking about your _amazing_ uniform-making skills, and Sung-Sun-sama decided she absolutely had to have a personal tailor. The other two are coming along to stick it to Szayelaporro, and I don't know what Lilynette's interest is."

"I want a new uniform design too!" the little girl said.

Personal tailor. To an arrancar.

Who wasn't a scientist, _outside Twelfth_. This wasn't even a _question_ , even if they'd really been asking. "If you want me to work on many projects, some assistance would make things faster. You should take Sado, too." Sado made an affirming noise, which might mean he agreed he could be of assistance but probably meant he agreed any way out of Twelfth was worth pursuing. Sado wasn't stupid. Uryū could show him enough of the basics to help somehow.

"We'll take that one, too," the arrancar said to Akon. "You better cooperate, unless you want to end up like the fraccion."

Akon didn't look entirely convinced. "That's not going to be a good enough excuse for—" He broke off. "A living world craftsman uses… a lot of equipment, doesn't he? Things that aren't common in Soul Society."

"I can manage without, but yes," Uryū said cautiously.

Akon looked between the arrancar and the Visored. "You could take some additional personnel to… build sewing machines. Synthesize fabric. Whatever you need. That would be helpful, wouldn't it?"

Somewhere out of Twelfth, Uryū understood. Away from Szayelaporro and his edible fraccion. As much as he loathed Twelfth Division, Akon hadn't made things any harder than they had to be. "…Well, maybe if they're young and flexible enough. And not too focused on… biology things." _No one who experimented on Quincy,_ he hoped was understood.

"Oh, yes, we have some very creative workers in sensor, communications, and computations." Akon craned his neck to look at the arrancar holding him. "If that's acceptable to you?"

The arrancar holding him shrugged, as did the one with her sleeve over her face, but the third one and the little girl seemed delighted with the idea of "stealing more from Szayelaporro". The Visored glowered at everyone indiscriminately.

So Akon opened the gate, and then ran off to find a half-dozen young, non-Quincy-dissecting researchers to save from Szayelaporro. Uryū limped out leaning heavily on Sado. They went a different way, not towards the labs.

(Remembering the mind games in Las Noches, he didn't relax.)

"So you really used to work here?" the third arrancar asked the Visored. "It's a pit."

"Tell me about it," the Visored snapped back. "It used to be normal. All this research shit is all Urahara's fault." She glared around. "Though it looks like Kurotsuchi made things about a million times worse, surprising _nobody_."

"Can he really turn into liquid?"

"The fuck should I know?"

"Yes," Uryū said. "Somehow."

"I wish Szayelaporro could do that," the little arrancar said. "Someone definitely could've gotten Aaroniero or Yammy to drink him. No, each drink _half_ of him!"

"Ewwwww," said the sleeve arrancar. "…Would that count as eating him or not? If it didn't kill him?"

"Eating part of him… Would he have gotten it back?"

" _How_?"

The increasingly grotesque discussion continued until they arrived in a lobby where Akon was waiting with seven fairly weak researcher-shinigami — he recognized Hanatarō's acquaintance, but none of the others — and a dolly of equipment. The arrancar made no objection to their falling in behind the group, and then — then they were outside.

Hanatarō had been right, the castle was unmissable.

Five minutes later, they were making their way through Seireitei's labyrinthine streets being gawked at by a random assortment of shinigami and civilians, and he was starting to hope this might not be a trick.

He wasn't _sure_ it wasn't a trick until Cirucci Sanderwicci showed up and started demanding a chance to take revenge for her defeat out of his hide. She really did not fit a Szayelaporro plan. The reassurance was more than worth the three lashes they let her give him.

He could have done without the passing out, though.

* * *

 **Coyote Starrk**

He hadn't bothered telling Lilynette to stay out of trouble. There wasn't any point to it.

(And anyway, if she caused some sort of problem because he'd been called away to deal with some sort of issue he hadn't caused with the "pet" he hadn't asked for, somebody else _deserved_ to have to deal with it.)

Starrk arrived in the throne room to find a… drama of some sort already in progress. Hachigen knelt white-knuckled and sweating, yoke active, but hardly anyone's attention was on him. The black-haired Visored girl was huddled in the middle of the floor, eyes alert but unseeing, groping at the air, smacking into the floor like she couldn't even feel it. Hinamori-fukutaichō was standing by, chalk-white. A shinigami prisoner was kneeling in the shadows beside the throne. And Harribel was standing in the doorway, _vibrating_.

"Starrk," Aizen said. "I was going to send for you later. What brings you here?"

"Sorry to interrupt, Aizen-sama," he said. (Truthfully, since walking into the middle of this was so not on his list of good ways to spend an afternoon. Or morning. Or any time ever.) "I was getting some weird feedback from the yoke — I think it means Hachigen is running out of strength to safely obey the orders he's getting."

"I see," Aizen said, eyebrows raised. "Very well then, Hachigen-kun, you may release the orders and remove the yoke from Yadōmaru-kun."

Hachigen immediately sagged in place — the Visored girl gasped, and her eyes started tracking. When he started to get up, he swayed and went back to his knees. Shit. Was Starrk going to have to carry him?

Maybe not. "Lisa," Hachigen said in a low voice, "can you make it over here so I can take that yoke off?"

She could — half crawling, half scooting, never raising her eyes towards the throne. Hachigen put a hand over the yoke keystone at the back of her head and murmured what was probably an apology; she just shook her head and smiled faintly. She made a strangled noise when the yoke came off.

That was better. What sort of yoke was this? Who would want to use something which _constantly_ sucked up the yoke holder's energy? Who _could_ use it?

…Oh. He saw where this was going. Damn.

"Harribel," Aizen said, "you may re-yoke your pet, I have no further need of her at present."

Harribel didn't need to be told twice. She had crossed the room, reapplied the yoke, and picked up the girl even before she said, "Thank you, Aizen-sama. May I be excused?"

"You may," Aizen said magnanimously. "Hinamori-kun, you may be excused as well. I will summon you later."

"H-hai."

Starrk watched her flee the room. She'd seemed like a nice, cooperative person when she was working with Hachigen. He wasn't sure why Aizen was breaking someone already cooperating. None of his business, he guessed. "Are you done with Hachigen, Aizen-sama?" Aizen had mentioned wanting to see him, so… "If there were some Exequias to take him to my rooms here until we're done, he could recover some before we go back to Seireitei."

Aizen kindly granted him the use of some Exequias. Hachigen looked… possibly grateful. Happy to be leaving the throne room anyway.

"Take him to my rooms, make sure there's food and water," Starrk said. Then, to Hachigen himself, "Get some rest."

With that taken care of, he turned back to Aizen. "Aizen-sama?"

"Starrk," Aizen said. "I am going to instruct you in the use of a new, more specialized yoke."

He _knew_ it.

"This more powerful yoke would not be practical for even most Espada to maintain, so I'm only calling for its use in a few particular cases." He indicated the prisoner kneeling off to the side.

It was the pink captain.

This was what passed for _not too much trouble_?!

* * *

 **Kyōraku Shunsui**

The Primera looked openly dismayed. Shunsui wasn't sure whether he felt insulted or flattered. Maybe both.

"It is true that Shunsui-kun is inclined to be… naughty," Aizen said. _Naughty_? "However, restricting him from seeing, hearing, or communicating with shinigami should minimize the risk and make him quite manageable."

The Primera did not look convinced. He just looked depressed.

So that was the point of that show — that and punishing Lisa for whatever game of Aizen's she'd spoiled. Shunsui's mind raced. Not being able to communicate would be bad. Not being able to _observe_ would be worse. Well, shit. At least the Primera was probably unlikely to always do the apparently energy-intensive sensory deprivation…

"This will take some practice to perfect, so you're going to start working on it today, as soon as I've completed a compressed version."

"Hai, Aizen-sama," the Primera said glumly.

Shunsui licked dry lips. "Nothing against you, Primera-san, but I think I might actually prefer the proving ground to losing my senses, such as they are."

"I thought you might say that," Aizen said. "If you do not cooperate, I will give Jūshirō's yoke to Aaroniero."

The Primera's eyebrows went up.

"And… who might Aaroniero be?" Shunsui asked.

"He should be here shortly," Aizen said. "Starrk, how would you describe him?"

"Um… The Novena Espada. He's a…" Starrk trailed off. "The relevant part is probably that he ate some weird Hollow who ate — no, absorbed — some shinigami and now he can change shape into him. The shinigami. And apparently he's gotten weird about it." He glanced at Aizen. "Sorry, Aizen-sama."

No. _Shit._

"No, I asked," Aizen said. "Out of curiosity, where did you hear that?"

"Well, Lilynette… Grimmjow's fraccion, maybe? Grimmjow thought the whole thing was kind of weird. And I heard — from Zommari — Aaroniero tried to get Tōsen-sama to let him do shinigami administrative stuff."

"Ah, yes, I see from Shunsui's face that the surprise is spoiled. Still, may as well get to know him. Aaroniero?"

Just as Shunsui feared, the arrancar who entered had Shiba Kaien's face. And voice. And the reiatsu wasn't an exact match — how could it be? — but the general feel was still there. Shunsui tuned out the ranting, which didn't seem to make much sense anyway, but—

This — this might break Jū.

He bowed his head. "Very well, Aizen-sama. If it keeps Ukitake away from… that, I'll cooperate."

Aaroniero made a high-pitched outraged noise. "But I _wanted_ the get the captain! After Grimmjow stole—"

"Dismissed, Aaroniero."

It took three tries to get his reiatsu not to throw the yoke off. It took the Primera four tries to order away sight. More practice was needed.

Shunsui ended up not going back to the proving ground for the rest of the day, but it was cold comfort.


	11. Days 29-30

**Notes: See first chapter for warnings. Appearing here not quite sixth months after AO3, and just barely now, because the posting interface here has decided it hates me again.**

 **Yadōmaru Lisa**

Lisa was tired enough to have been fighting Gillians all day instead of just having a couple weird yokes. She just couldn't find the energy to make any objection to Harribel's... _fussing_. It wouldn't have done any good anyway.

And the truth was, she _minded_ it a lot less than she should have. It made her feel _safer_. (Not _safe_ , but safer.) She'd stopped flinching when the Tercera touched her shoulder or arm or even her neck.

It must be some low-key secondary yoke effect. It had to be that, because otherwise Lisa had Stockholm Syndrome _already_ , which was not an acceptable possibility. (Very _likely_ , but not acceptable.)

Harribel insisted that they remain in her apartments in the castle until she was certain Lisa wasn't injured. She even got Orihime in. Lisa would have taken that as an opportunity to tell the human girl how much better Ichigo was doing if there hadn't been _two Espada breathing down their necks_. Harribel was bad enough, but Lisa might have chanced it (there was definitely some sort of Stockholm Syndrome thing going on). But Ulquiorra? No.

(The way he kept _literally_ breathing down Orihime's neck was really creepy, too. Maybe she could ask Sung-Sun if she knew what was up with him.)

 _Finally_ , they left the damn castle and returned to Seireitei. Lisa just wanted to get some rest somewhere other than the castle. Knowing Aizen was quite likely in the building made that more or less impossible. Now she just had to hope she didn't immediately get called out to fight Menos eating the Academy or something.

She didn't feel bad about getting used to the house. Mashiro and Hiyori were usually there. It was a little bit like a home.

...There were more than four people in the house. And not more arrancar, either, but shinigami and... was that a _human_? And something really odd—

...Odd like a Quincy, maybe?

As soon as Harribel dismissed her, probably to ask her fraccion about events while she was _occupied_ , Lisa followed the new reiatsu — and conveniently Mashiro and Hiyori's, too — to a previously-unexplored basement. There were hammering noises coming from inside.

"What the hell is going on down here?" she asked as she reached the foot of the stairs. The basement looked like it was mostly one large room. Some shinigami were building... something.

Mashiro bounced to her feet. "We launched a raid on Twelfth!"

Hiyori chucked a hammer at her. " _I_ accompanied our mistress's fraccion when they went to make a request-demand of the servants of a lower-ranked Espada who's not in Seireitei right now. You sat on your ass scratching yourself."

Mashiro caught the hammer and threw it back without missing a beat. "We rescued some of Berry-tan's human friends—" Hiyori ducked the hammer, and Ichigo's larger human friend caught it before it could clock a skinny, bespectacled shinigami. He didn't look like he planned to give it back.

"Not that I'm not happy Ichigo's friends are out of Twelfth, but why did the fraccion go for this?"

"We were at the yoke checkup, talking about how unfair it is we have to wear the same uniform as the whitecoats _just_ because we're yoked, and Kuchiki Rukia said that Quincy-kun could probably design fine new yoke uniforms — he was in the handicrafts club and really good — except he was stuck waiting to be horribly killed by the science Espada."

Ichigo's friend — Sado, was it? — really had an _expressive_ flat stare.

"So Sung-Sun-sama decided she wanted a personal tailor!"

Lisa could sort of see Sung-Sun going for a tailor, but the others? "And the other two went for it?"

"They were in it to get at Szayelaporro," Hiyori contributed. "They said so. And then Lilynette decided to get in on it, too. So they dragged me off and Mila Rose intimidated the fraccion left in charge and I had to talk to Akon, the little twerp, who turned over the Quincy and the big human and then somehow convinced Sung-Sun to take a dozen of the greenest, most naive technical SRDI people, with the justification that they would... build sewing machines or something. Any opportunity to get people out of Twelfth before Szayelwhatever arrives, I guess. Though I'm still not convinced he's worse than Kurotsuchi."

Lisa shrugged. You didn't have to be worse than Kurotsuchi to merit running away from. "And... what are they building?" She didn't think sewing machines were usually _hammered_.

"Dunno!" Mashiro said cheerfully. "Bunks," Hiyori said. "Since apparently they're _all_ going to be _living_ down here."

"Ah." That made sense, at least. "Hey, if I get permission from Harribel-sama, do you think you could install a shower somewhere in the house?" She directed the question at the nearest ex- Twelfth shinigami, who _eep_ ed and tried to hide behind Sado.

Another one smacked the first one. "We've been conquered by arrancar and now you're scared of _Visored_? Hell, Ukita, if you're going to be scared of _Visored_ you might as well drown yourself in the fucking toilet right now."

"You should be in charge of talking to Hiyori," Lisa told the second one. "But be ruder." " _Hey_!"

Abandoning hopes of a shower for the moment, she turned to Sado. "Anything you or the Quincy need? Where _is_ he, anyway?"

Sado tilted his head — there was the Quincy, unconscious on a blanket in the back corner, safely away from the carpentry. "He needs a healer."

"A healer's dependent on Harribel-sama or the fraccion okaying it, but I can at least get him a futon."

But they wouldn't okay anyone leaving to get a healer immediately, and then all three of them were called away in the middle of the night to deal with _more damn Menos_.

Hopefully the Quincy didn't have any injuries that wouldn't keep a little longer. Or else one of the fraccion would take responsibility for things they brought home and summon someone herself.

...Hopefully the injuries would keep.

 **Kuchiki Rukia**

It occurred to Rukia only as she was knocking that possibly she should have made sure it wasn't some sort of faux-pas for the pet of one Espada to visit the home of another Espada. Well, Grimmjow hadn't said anything about it while refusing Ichigo permission, so hopefully not.

After a minute, the door was jerked open by the shortest of the Tercera's fraccion — Apacci. "Grimmjow can go fuck himself," she said.

Rukia kept her head bowed respectfully, but permitted a twitch of the lips. "Grimmjow-sama didn't send me — I was hoping it would be possible to see Ishida and Sado."

Apacci blinked. "Who?"

"...The Quincy and the other human."

"Oh, right. Uh, sure—" Inspiration seemed to strike. "Sure, _if_ you go get a healer shinigami and bring them with you."

Rukia stepped back a pace and waved to Hanatarō, who she'd left fidgeting halfway down the block. He covered the distance so fast she wasn't sure he hadn't flash-stepped. She turned back to Apacci. "Hanatarō-san is a healer. We weren't sure you'd let him in."

"Eh, he looks harmless enough," Apacci said. "Fine, come in, they're in the basement. Jaegerjaquez can still go fuck himself, though."

The fraccion didn't stick around, and Rukia was afraid they'd end up wandering around an Espada's house unescorted, but Hanatarō was able to find the basement door without difficulty. "Fourth Division instincts," he explained uninformatively.

Down in the basement, a half-dozen shinigami were working on repairing or constructing a large piece of equipment of some description... actually... She hadn't seen one in a long time, but she thought it was a reishi loom. None of them seemed to have noticed Rukia or Hanatarō. Rukia opened her mouth, then decided their nerves were probably shattered enough already without Surprise Kuchiki, and waved Hanatarō at them. Sado and Ishida should be... there. Back in a corner. Sado was preventing Ishida from getting up from a futon.

"—I am _telling_ you, someone else is _here_ , and I'm not prepared to trust strange shinigami—" "It's just me," Rukia said, kneeling next to Sado. Ishida blinked. "I should have recognized — the yoke is obscuring things, but—" "Stop trying to get up," Sado said. He turned to Rukia. "He needs a — oh."

"I brought Hanatarō," Rukia explained for Ishida's benefit. "He'll be over in a minute."

Ishida looked awful, paper-white with dark purple smudges below his eyes. He didn't have a yoke — neither did Sado, _could_ humans be yoked? (Since they obviously didn't have shikai-capable zanpakutō there wasn't any _requirement_ that they be yoked — then again they were both capable of shikai-level combat even without that — then again she wondered if Quincy power would just absorb a yoke. Hopefully the Tercera would deal with any questions from Aizen or Tōsen or... whoever.) His unmarked neck only made the half-healed incisions extending from under his patient robe up past his collarbones more obvious.

"You look like hell," she said brightly. "More or less what I was expecting, though." "Likewise," Ishida said dryly.

Rukia blinked. "Really?" Non-damaging yoke, all healed up from the new yoke 'testing' night before last, all healed up from the previous day's Hollow-hunting — the kosode had some grass stains she hadn't bothered trying to get rid of, but that hardly equated to looking like _hell_. "I'm a little overtired, maybe?"

Ishida and Sado exchanged awkward looks.

Hanatarō cleared his throat, also awkwardly, as he joined them. "I think they are probably looking at, um, your arms, and, uh..." He indicated the side of his own neck.

Oh. Right. That.

And the bruises were already coming up on her forearms, too. They weren't identifiably finger- shaped, yet, but there was still time.

How embarrassing.

"Nothing to worry about," she said briskly. "Grimmjow-sama was just trying to make Ichigo mad."

"By... biting you," Ishida said flatly.

"It made him very mad," Rukia assured them. "And much more _combatively_ mad than when he was just upset over not being allowed to come visit you, which I'm sure was the point. It's nothing, or Hanatarō would have insisted on taking care of it before we left Fourth, right? Right. How are they, Hanatarō?"

"Sado-san is still recovering from his battle injuries, and he hasn't been sleeping or eating well since then," Hanatarō replied. "Ishida-san... I don't _think_ has any _untreated_ injuries, but there are several which could be treated _better_."

"How's Ichigo?" Sado asked.

"He's..." Stuck in a house with only Grimmjow or the fraccion for company most of the time. Beaten and humiliated daily. Having trouble interpreting what Grimmjow wanted from him, exactly. Still feeling responsible for their collective predicament. Lonely. Bored. "Working very hard at regaining his powers. He was very disappointed that Grimmjow-sama wouldn't allow him to visit."

"They might not have let him in anyway," Hanatarō said. "They say the Tercera doesn't trust males. They're human, and I'm too weak to be threatening, but even without his powers..."

"Perhaps we can write, ah..." Ishida gestured vaguely, "write _letters_. Hanatarō-san, are there any injuries that might explain why I can't _think_ straight? I'm becoming concerned."

"Well, there's the poor sleep. And I wouldn't be surprised if, um, the pain was... overwhelmingly distracting? Unless they started giving you something..."

"They got paranoid about it after the second near-overdose," Ishida said. "But I don't think that's it."

"I'm just going to put in a temporary block while I finish the exam—"

"That's not—" Ishida broke off as Hanatarō applied the kidō. "Oh." And, apparently, fell asleep on the spot. Hanatarō and Sado had to ease him back to the futon.

"Is he going to be able to do the tailor stuff soon?" one of the Twelfth Division people asked anxiously. "Because if she asks—"

"Just — give him the rest of the day," Hanatarō said. "And he should stay off his feet for longer, if at all possible?"

Sado nodded firmly. "I can carry him if needed."

 _That_ would go over well, Rukia was sure. "I'm sorry to disappear while Ishida's unconscious, but there are some other things I need to get to today. I'll come back when I can."

Sado nodded again. "Give Ichigo our best."

Next on the agenda was a stop at formerly-Eleventh. Rukia still wasn't at all sure she was having any impact on the children there, but both Hinamori and Shihōin Yūshirō seemed to appreciate her visits, so she kept it up when she could.

Today, Hinamori wasn't there — no surprise — but Yūshirō drew her aside almost immediately. "Rukia-san," he said. "May I ask you a question?"

She raised her eyebrows. That had been... unusually diffident. "Go ahead."

"The latest version of the yoke doesn't injure people with less spiritual power, so it's assumed it's also... safe for children." He made a face. "So, I could leave the compound, get a yoke, go to the Academy, and start contributing."

Ah. "But you also have the option of staying here, with no yoke?"

"So far. Hinamori-fukutaichō gave me the... impression, that she thinks it would be better for me to stay, but she hasn't given any specifics. I was hoping you could tell me something about the possible yoke holders, and give me your opinion?"

"Of course," she said. "I'm not sure who you'd be most likely to end up with... Tōsen-sama probably wouldn't let you go to the Primera, since he's living in a secondary Shihōin property. Baraggan is possible — that would be — not good."

"Considering the condition Ōmaeda-fukutaichō is generally in I wouldn't think so," he murmured.

"The Tercera is relatively decent to her pets, but gender may come into it. I don't know how Ulquiorra deals with those Academy teachers he's holding the yoke on. Coldly. Nnoitra is extremely bad for a female prisoner, but I have no idea how he'd deal with a young male."

"I'd rather not be there no matter how he would treat _me_ ," Yūshirō muttered. "I know Nariko- san..."

That _would_ get awkward. "Grimmjow-sama... I believe Grimmjow-sama said he was looking for a _durable plaything_ for the fraccion. Quite possibly still better than Nnoitra or Baraggan, but I wouldn't recommend it." Before he could say anything, she continued briskly, "Zommari I don't know about. He's only handled Sasakibe-san, and... well. Szayelaporro is not an option, fortunately. Aaroniero is... Aaroniero hopefully wouldn't be interested in you." Although actually — "On second thought... About Aaroniero. He — did you know Shiba Kaien-dono well?"

Yūshirō blinked at the apparent non sequitur. "...Fairly well, yes? After onee-sama had to leave— I had my own tutors, of course, but he was... friendly."

Damn. Hopefully Aaroniero wouldn't realize that. But. "I don't know how much you know about what happened to him. He was... taken over by a strange kind of Hollow, and though we thought it had been purified it escaped." Yūshirō opened his mouth, but she just barreled onwards. "Aaroniero subsequently ate the Hollow and gained its powers and its — access to Kaien-dono's memories and... and soul." So of _course_ he'd know _exactly_ what relationship Kaien had with Yūshirō, what had she been thinking.

Yūshirō had grown steadily more gray as she spoke. "That's... obscene."

"Yes." She swallowed. "And he... seems to be interested in... playing at being him. Sort of. In a... very twisted way." She wouldn't say more, and he clearly wasn't going to ask more, but he was a Shihōin — he could probably guess some of it. "So, keeping that in mind... I wouldn't advise you to — I would advise that you _not_ leave the compound. Not unless things get a lot more dire."

He nodded, eyes wide. "Thank you, Rukia-san. I will... take your advice."

"Glad to be of help." Damn, she was probably going to have nightmares about Aaroniero now. "Is there anything else I can help with while I'm here?"

"Hmm... Well, the younger adolescents are still _thoroughly_ factionalized, especially the girls, but I think it would take more than a morning to sort that out."

"Kazuko-chan and Rurichiyo-chan still haven't made up?"

"It's gotten worse, actually. It turns out at least one Kasumiōji retainer decided to become a sworn shinigami with the idea that he'd still be able to protect Rurichiyo that way. It wasn't her idea and she isn't very happy about it, but she won't renounce him, so she's had some defectors from her camp."

Rukia winced. She could see both sides of that one. All sides, even.

Yūshirō held up a finger. "However, it turns out defecting from Rurichiyo's camp does not equal fitting in well in Kazuko's camp, since Rurichiyo had attracted a lot of the less traditional group to begin with. So, unless Kazuko bends soon, I think Noriyo will be breaking off with a _third_ group."

Rukia tried not to laugh. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Some of each. Kazuko-chan is still pretty dismissive of the becoming-shinigami plan, so reducing her influence is good, but the increased tension is making things very awkward around here, and another split will make it worse. We've already had to break up a few scuffles."

"And given the physical training future scuffles will only get more serious?"

"I'm not worried about that so much — if I can get them sparring it might get some of the tension out — and we've been trying to impress on _everyone_ the importance of not attacking people below your skill level."

Probably mostly aimed at Fēng children. "What about the boys?"

"There's a sizable group focused on proving their manliness by Becoming Strong Enough To Be Shinigami, which is helpful for me. Rurichiyo's former betrothed is still sticking by her, and there are some other boys in that group, too. Kazuko's group has more of a... parallel, allied group centered on Kuchiki Masakatsu."

...Arrogant Boy. Wonderful. "I'm surprised he hasn't annoyed all his followers away." Yūshirō shrugged. "It's a status thing, I think. Since he's the highest-ranked male Kuchiki here."

"But you still outrank him, don't you? If they're going to go by that." Whiiiiiich they weren't supposed to be doing, but it wasn't like Rukia was going to go running to Tōsen about it.

"Yes, but I'm _strange_."

Hmm. Her family position wouldn't have much if any impact on Masakatsu — his branch of the family had never thought much of her. "Do you think he's old enough for me to kick him in the head?"

"...Probably not. I'll make him do more push-ups."

And then it was over to Thirteenth for off-day planning and strategizing. They were supposed to be getting some new whitecoats, and would need to adjust plans accordingly. Rukia was better at dealing with the whitecoats than Kiyone or Sentarō — partially because she was yoked but not disarmed, and partially just because she was _much_ better at hiding how she felt about them. No one really reacted well to open furious contempt.

And in fairness, a lot of the whitecoats had been desperate when they went up the hill, and desperation twisted people up. She didn't actually blame them — much — for _deciding_ to swear allegiance. Just. There was that mysterious test, _which some people didn't pass_ , so all the whitecoats who came back had done _something_ more than make a decision.

But this wasn't the time for worrying about that. This was the time for making sure none of the new whitecoats were going to be a complete disaster, and because Rukia dealt with them so much better, she got to go check them out first. One obvious Eleventh Divisioner, one she couldn't quite get a read on, and— "Kuroki-san?" The nineteenth seat of Sixth — now former, she guessed — was some sort of Kuchiki third-cousin-in-law-twice-removed, and she would have assumed he'd been killed with the other Kuchiki and Kuchiki-beholden officers. "Congratulations on surviving. I'm sure nii-sama would be pleased."

Kuroki turned pasty white and wouldn't meet her eyes the entire interview. ...Huh.

She made it back before curfew with, as instructed, an entire _wheelbarrow_ of take-out food. Hopefully it wasn't because Ichigo wasn't in a good enough _condition_ to make dinner.

The house was _loud_ again. That couldn't be good.

Grimmjow caught her just inside the door and grabbed her by the back of the neck. "Leave that here. Go wait out back with Kurosaki, and stay out of the way. Unless I call you."

"Hai, Grimmjow-sama."

Loud, and _not_ involving Ichigo? She looked around as much as she could going straight back, and — oh.

The promised replacement pet had arrived. Damn.

Out in the garden, Ichigo was going through sword forms with vicious force. He looked like he'd been beaten up already. Rukia dropped down on the grass and leaned against a tree.

"I saw Sado and Ishida. Sado looks worn out and Ishida looks worse, but Hanatarō didn't find anything serious. They're stuck in a basement, but... They're out of Twelfth."

Ichigo ran through a few more forms. "That's good."

"Ishida suggested if you still weren't allowed to visit for whatever reason the three of you could write letters back and forth." She suspected the writing in any such exchange would be rather unevenly divided, but communication would be good. What else... "The new whitecoats are a mix. Adolescent ex-noble factionalization is intensifying." She paused as Ichigo continued. "... Are you under orders to keep training?"

"Yes." Slash, thrust, slash, what would have been a _Getsūga tenshō_ if he had his powers. "...How long has this been going on?"

"Few hours. It's so the fraccion don't have to deal with me while they..." He glanced at the house, face twisting. "Her name's Matsūra Tomomasa. Minor noble, I guess."

Too minor for Rukia to have had to memorize the name. "The family name is different, but Grimmjow-sama was looking into Utsunomiya Tomomoto's family — is she married?"

"Was. Yes." Slash, slash. "Widowed now. Three little kids she hasn't seen in a month."

Oh. She was _a mother_ , was why he was reacting so strongly. Not that Ichigo wouldn't have been distraught no matter who the victim was — this was someone else being enslaved for the fraccion to abuse, because Ichigo and Rukia were only available at Grimmjow's say-so, not by default — but this made it _an issue_. "I see."

"I said, I said I would — but Grimmjow-sama said no." Slash, thrust. "Said I should _get used to it_." Parry (not a very good one), slash, slash. "Had me _demonstrate_ what she's supposed to do when I kept arguing." Unpowered _Getsūga tenshō_. "Said I should be _grateful_ they didn't bring in me and you and make an org— An event of it." Thrust, stumble, slash. "Said _maybe_ I could spare her a few specific _acts_ if I came up with something _good_ to pay for it." Slash, slash. "And I am so. Fucking. _Sick_ of being _helpless_!"

It wasn't a very big _Getsūga tenshō_ , historically speaking, but it still split the porch and put a hole in the wall of the house.

Ichigo caught himself before his sword's suddenly doubled length and weight could drop him on his face. "Zangetsu...?"

Grimmjow bounded out the hole in the wall. "Ha! Shikai! I _knew_ you'd get over it, you bastard! Now fight me!"

Ichigo was tired from several hours of nonstop training and out-of-practice with his actual sword, not to mention still only at shikai level — Grimmjow would still beat him without too much trouble, and then there'd probably be the usual post-beatdown assault. Rukia, still unable to leave the yard, had to retreat to what was left of the porch roof to get out of the way.

As soon as Tōsen found out about this, Ichigo would be put in the 'shikai asset' rotation, and Grimmjow would have to let him out of the house more. So, good thing for Ichigo, and good thing for the squads who'd get his backup.

Too bad for Matsūra-san, though. Maybe she could at least get permission to see her kids? Or just _hire_ a damn housekeeper?

Rukia had to leap _off_ the porch roof as a poorly-aimed cero took out what was left of the porch and continued inside to, by the sound of it, _severely startle_ Edrad. The fraccion barged outside a second later, and then it just turned into a general brawl involving everyone except Matsūra-san and Yylfordt, who snuck off and ate more than his share of the takeout instead, up until the brawl reached him.

The end of the evening found Ichigo passed out from exhaustion, Rukia almost as black and blue as he was, and Matsūra-san — composed.

"I had some warning, Kuchiki-san," she said. "I — knew what to expect. This isn't—" She broke off. "Grimmjow-sama said if I'm satisfactory, I may send my family extra rations. And — better this, than some of the others."

"...Yes." Nnoitra. Baraggan. _Aaroniero_. Right, couldn't forget she had nightmares scheduled.

 **Ishida Uryū**

In the middle of Seireitei, surrounded by shinigami (not the strongest, but not all weak by any means), Visored (stronger than most or all shinigami wandering around), Numeros (nothing to scoff at), Espada (some of whom had _terrifying_ reiatsu levels), and _Aizen's freakish castle_ , the sudden increase in Kurosaki's power _still_ startled Uryū into almost spilling rice all over his futon.

"Are you all right?" Sado asked.

"Fine. Just sensed something." No point in speculating about what. He turned back to Tsubokura. "All right. That... machine," machine-in-progress, really, "produces fabric, in an automated fashion."

"Yes, it's a reishi loom."

"But you haven't built a sewing machine."

"A sewing... machine," Tsubokura echoed. "That must have been what Third Seat Akon meant, about equipment. The world of the living really is amazing..."

"...Seireitei doesn't have sewing machines."

"Um. No."

Uryū wasn't even surprised. This was the place that couldn't even upgrade to a siren, not even to a damn _bell_ , for intruder alarms, and relied on butterflies for internal messaging when they had those perfectly functional phones they used in the world of the living. ...Unless the phones all routed through Twelfth, that might be a good reason to stick with butterflies. But the point stood, sewing machines would be out of character.

So were the reishi looms, really, but— "If you don't do mass production, though, don't you have trouble producing enough uniforms?" he asked. "In the... general you."

"No," Tsubokura said. "It's us. I mean, Twelfth. Or actually it's in collaboration with the Kidō Corps."

"With no sewing machines?" Uryū briefly pictured Kurotsuchi taking time from his busy schedule of torturing people to hand-sew a hundred hakama. Not likely.

"Well, no — it's more a sort of... blank production. Production of blanks, on specialized looms. Then when someone touches it, it shapes itself according to their reiatsu and then... acts like ordinary cloth after that. But this is a plain one and will just make cloth. Any kind of cloth. And thread. And stuff."

"...I see." Cloth and thread and needles were the most important things, but — Uryū knew he was best known for his speed-hand-sewing, which was if he said so himself quite impressive. He preferred the fine control it gave him. But when it came to large, outfit-sized projects, he generally made use of the technological aids available. Quincy techniques _could_ be used to stave off hand cramps, but every time he did he imagined Ryūken giving him a _look_ of disdain, and his grandfather being baffled by mundane uses of noble techniques. So: "I will need that sewing machine."

"Well, that's what we're here for!" one of the other Twelfth Division people said bravely. "Can you describe the construction, or at least the function?"

Oh, hell. He'd once rendered the Handicrafts Club's sewing machine completely nonfunctional trying to un-jam a bobbin. Fortunately Inoue had fixed it before he had to admit it to anyone. "Its function, at least. There are two needles, and a..." He trailed off. "Perhaps I could draw a picture?" Oh _hell_ was he going to have to diagram a sewing machine with an _ink brush_?

"That's a good start!" said the Twelfth Division person. "Rin, get something for him to write on — I'll get paper and pencil."

(Why did Twelfth Division have to be the Quincy-torturing division _and_ the only one to adopt any technological advances?) (Never mind, it was undoubtedly because of Urahara somehow.)

"I can use the table—" Uryū started, trying to swing his legs off the futon, but Sado dropped a hand on his shoulder.

" _Bedrest_."

Ugh.

"You should try to sleep more. It's late anyway."

Probably true, as much as they could tell in the basement, and with the pain at manageable levels he would sleep much better. Still... "I'll try to sketch the sewing machine first, then they can work on it while I'm _recuperating_. When the fraccion — Sung-Sun — comes back, I'd like to have _something_ to show her that she's getting some return on her investment."

Sado couldn't really argue with that, and he knew it. He just grimaced expressively, and let Uryū at the paper.


End file.
